By Samantha Rodriguez
2-19-2025
This story originally appeared in The Miami Hurricane

Doritos have been a staple Super Bowl snack for decades. The University of Miami’s Orange Umbrella reinvented the iconic brand as not just a chip, but a lifestyle in the student-run ad agency’s ad submission for Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest.

Unfortunately, they didn’t make it into the final round. Still, Mavorah is confident the agency will never forget the experience and Orange Umbrella looks forward to trying again next year with more tricks up its sleeve.

The contest invites creators from around the world to develop a Doritos ad that will make watchers turn off the TV and run to get that nacho-cheese taste. Winners would receive $1 million, a trip to New Orleans, and have their ad aired before over 100 million viewers during football’s biggest night.

The student-run ad agency heard about the competition four weeks before the submission deadline. Orange Umbrella Managing Director Ian Mavorah split students into groups to have them create multiple ad ideas and pitch them.

“When I found out they were doing it again, I thought this would be a great project for the team,” Mavorah said. “I mentioned it to the agency, we voted, and it was unanimous.”

UM senior Liam Kirkpatrick’s team’s idea was the winner. They imagined a romantic date where the boyfriend’s card doesn’t go through, so the girlfriend thought to pay with a Dorito.

She opened her purse, which had dozens of Doritos inside, and pulled out the best one to put into the waiter’s chip reader. The commercial then cuts to the Doritos logo and mantra, “For the Bold.”

Kirkpatrick and the agency’s video team set up in a local restaurant and spent four hours bringing their vision to life.

“The most difficult thing was getting actors together,” Kirkpatrick said. “Putting together people that we think of going to be of substance quickly and under time and budget was really important.”

Audio was another challenge. The restaurant was near a Metrorail station, and any passing train covered the actors’ dialogue from getting recorded. With minutes ticking by, the crew would wait for the trains to leave, which were coming every “four minutes in between each take.”

Orange Umbrella Vice President of Public Relations Ava Prinzo watched it unfold as an extra.

“Our video team really excelled at bringing the whole thing together,” Prinzo said. “We had such a great idea, and seeing them take that idea and apply it to that scale, it was really incredible.”

After hours of editing, the agency submitted its ad to the competition. It ended up in the Doritos gallery for the nation to see and vote on.

The agency is eagerly anticipating next year’s contest so they can take their new submission to the next level.

“At the end of the day, based on all the obstacles, the timing we had, I think they knocked it out of the park,” Mavorah said.

Click here to see Orange Umbrella’s unforgettable Super Bowl Doritos ad.