Scott Kraus, a fourth-year science from New Glasgow, has entered the Pictou County Pizza flavour in Lays’ ‘Do Us A Flavour’ contest. The creator of the winning chip flavour could win $50,000 and one per cent of the flavour’s future sales.
According to Kraus, it’s so far so good.
“The campaign has taken off amazingly quick. The support on Facebook and even further has been really cool and everyone I’ve spoken to about it is really excited about the idea and sampling the chip,” said Kraus.
Though it’s the first time he’s ever submitted an idea in a contest, the Pictou County pizza taste was too good to pass up as a chip flavour idea.
“The vote count on the Lays website only updates every few days and the initial jump from 8 to 90 likes made me think ‘wow, we can actually do this,’” he said. “I wanted something that could be shared and enjoyed amongst a lot of people, and thought Pictou County Pizza would be perfect.”
This is the second year for the Lay’s ‘Do Us A Flavour’ contest, which saw more than 600,000 entries. Despite garnering the most votes, last year’s winning flavour Maple Moose was discontinued after three months due to low sales.
Kraus is hoping if the community can come together to support the local entry, he will in return support the community.
“It’s something the whole county can agree is great and unique to the area. Pictou County Pizza is definitely a community flavour with tons of community support, and I wanted to recognize that by giving back to the community through splitting any prize with the Pictou County Food Bank.”
There are other pizza-style flavours in the contest, such as deep-dish pizza and taco flavour, Kraus feels the biggest competition this year is poutine flavour. Still, he’s hoping a concentration of local votes, along with the voting power of Pictou County expatriates around the country.
“It’s unique in its flavour, and isn’t what you’d expect from a pizza, so I think that will garner support. Everyone has his or her favourite local pizza, but Pictou County Pizza is such a distinct taste I think it will definitely catch on across the country.”
He admits there is a bit of local variation in the taste and has even noted his favourite pizzerias in the county.
“I think local residents have their own favourite Pictou County pizza establishment,” he said. “Mine is either Acropole or Sam’s, but I may be biased as they are walking distance from my house.”
He’s aiming high but would be happy to settle for the top four, which guarantees the chip will be made and a $5,000 dollar prize. If that occurs, he’ll still donate half of to the Pictou County Food Bank
“Having the flavour of Pictou County Pizza created would definitely put us on the map and perhaps generate some buzz for local businesses. We’re a small town with a big flavour and we’d love to share it with the rest of Canada.”
If you’d like to vote, go to the Lay’s Do Us A Flavour website and log in with Facebook. Voting ends Apr. 25 and you can only vote once.
On Twitter: @NGNewsJohn
