“Chips are sold almost everywhere,” Rodney Smith Jr. says. “Even in the middle of nowhere. You can go to the desert in the middle of Nevada, go to a gas station, you’ll find a bag of chips.”
Now, in many places that sell snack chicks, images of Smith’s face will be there too - on bags of Lay’s potato chips. More precisely, Smith’s smile will adorn those bags. As will the story of the charitable organization he founded. It’s part of Lay’s “Smiles” campaign, highlighting 30 “Everyday Smilers” making a positive impact on their communities.
Smith’s organization Raising Men Lawn Care Service provides free lawn care to elderly, disabled, single parents and veterans. In 2016, he founded the organization in Huntsville, the north Alabama city where he resides. Now it’s spread to all 50 states he says and provides free lawn care for more than 33,000 people.
For the next six to eight weeks, Smith and the other 30 “Everyday Smilers” will appear on literally millions of Lay’s potato chips bag sold in the U.S. Lay’s will donate up to $1 million in proceeds from sales of these chips to Operation Smile, a nonprofit dedicated to helping children and adults worldwide receive cleft palate and cleft lip care and surgery. This is the “Smiles” campaign’s third year. Based in Plano, Texas, Lay’s has raised a $1 million for Operation Smile in each of the first two years.
In 2019, more than 71,000 people scanned Lay’s “Smiles” bags' QR codes to hear the stories behind the “Everyday Smilers.” “We’re very grateful,” Smith says, “for the opportunity to share our story and also raise money for a good cause like Operation Smile.”
Because of coronavirus concerns, this year instead of bringing in “Everyday Smilers” to Dallas for a VIP photo/video shoot, honorees shot self-portraits on their smartphones. Those images were turned into CGI images for the bag designs. Other 2020 “Everyday Smilers” come from places such as Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Dallas, West Hollywood and Detroit. Smith is the lone representative from Alabama, something he’s “very proud” of.
Lay’s original “Smiles” campaign concept was created with the idea “a smile usually triggers another smile,” says Lay’s senior director of marketing Katie Ceclan. The tie-in with Operation Smiles was a natural. “There couldn’t be a better connection,” Ceclan says.
Amid 2020′s ongoing pandemic, “Smiles” took on a little extra meaning. “Just given everything that’s happening, with people wearing masks and you can’t see smiles,” Ceclan says, “we thought it’s probably the best year to continue this program. So when you are shopping you can still see smiles (on the potato chip bags) even though everyone else’s smiles are covered. Hopefully it’s still triggering that joy for our consumers.”
A CGI version of Huntsville's Rodney Smith Jr.'s smile appears on potato chip bags in Lay’s “Smiles” campaign. (Courtesy Lay's)
And what inspired Smith to start Raising Men Lawn Care Service? In 2015, after leaving Huntsville’s Alabama A&M University for the day, where he was studying computer science, Smith saw an elderly mowing a lawn. “It looked like he was struggling,” Smith says, “so I pulled over and helped him out.” Later that night, he decided to take the idea further and involve local youths.
By having those youths do lawncare for those in need, Raising Men Lawn Care Service teaches kindness, responsibility and service. (And by the way, Smith says girls have always been a part of his organization and there’s now a Raising Women Lawn Care Service, too.) “It means so much to the people we mow for,” he says. “A lot of them are on fixed incomes and really can’t afford to pay to have their lawn mowed by someone. So we come by and mow it for free and that frees them up for other things they really need.”
Originally from the British island territory Bermuda, Smith is currently working towards a master’s degree in social work. Smith says his smile can be found on three Lay’s flavors: Kettle Cooked Original, Salt & Vinegar and Cheddar & Sour Cream. (As far as actually eating chips goes, he’s partial to Lay’s Sour Cream & Onion and BBQ flavors.) To be considered for a Lay’s “Everyday Smiler,” one needs to be nominated, by someone in their community or by themselves. Smith has no idea who nominated him. “And then when (Lay’s) called me I was really shocked,” he says.
As part of this year’s “Everyday Smilers” packaging, Lay’s is reissuing three fan-favorite limited-time-only flavors: Fried Pickles with Ranch, Hot Sauce (a Frank’s RedHot collabo) and Kettle Cooked Beer Cheese.
An arm of Frito-Lay’s/PepsiCo, Lay’s is a $3 billion brand, Ceclan says. But during coronavirus, even a business that big has had to shapeshift their operations, everything from production to how they talk to their customers. Ceclan says in the early days of the pandemic, consumers were drawn to standby flavors, like Lay’s Classic, the brand’s top seller. “I think now as people have been at home longer, consumers are looking for some new flavor experiences,” she says. So Lay’s booted up a Flavor Trip line, featuring sapors inspired by travel destination foods, like New York pizza and Los Angeles carnitas street tacos.
The 2020 “Smiles” bags have been on store shelves for a week or so. Smith thinks the first place he saw the packaging with his smile on it was at a Publix grocery store. He’s stocked up on about 20 bags he wants to give to some of the people Raising Men Lawn Care Service mows lawns for. And yeah, he plans on saving a bag or two as keepsakes too.
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