Call of Duty, Mountain Dew and Doritos' pro gamer move

If you grew up in the 2010s like I did, then you'll know all about being MLG (a pro gamer involved in Major League Gaming, for the oldheads).

You'll also remember 3 of the biggest cultural symbols of that movement:

Mountain Dew, Doritos, and FPS (first-person shooter) games like Call of Duty (CoD).

Mountain Dew and Doritos, both owned by PepsiCo, have become synonymous with video games for one reason or another over time.

But their specific relationship with Activision's CoD franchise has stood the test of time and even continues today, long after MLG stopped being cool.

So why have chips, soda and games about shooting people been so tight-knit for so long?

A blast from the past

Okay, here's a fact older, non-MLG readers can appreciate:

Mountain Dew's been the drink of choice for radical dudes and epic gamers since the 90s. It doesn't matter the decade - if it's cool, the Dew is automatically there.

But it was around the late 2000s when Mountain Dew and Doritos became part of a cultural movement for gamers. And this was most pronounced with the CoD and Halo video game franchises.

Though both game series are still going strong today, Halo isn't nearly as conjoined to the snack foods as it once was. But CoD has embraced the memes and stereotypes around its target audience's favourite foods as time has gone on.

Today, it's at the point where players can earn in-game perks just through buying the right chips and soda - or rather, the chips and soda they've already been buying!

Play/Eat/Drink to WIN!

There have been plenty of collaborations between PepsiCo and Activision since the MLG movement began. But even since it died down a few years back, the corporations' relationship has stayed tight.

In 2020, one partnership celebrating the launch of CoD: Black Ops Cold War included a social media giveaway. Over 10,000 players took advantage of an offer for a free 'gun charm' (a Dorito that hangs from your in-game gun) by following Mountain Dew's Twitter account and tweeting #DoritosDewDrop at them.

A similar promo happened in 2019 with the release of CoD: Modern Warfare.

CoD: Black Ops Cold War also offered various prizes, including a shot at double XP for an entire year, to players who bought specially-marked packs of Doritos and Mountain Dew and used codes on the packaging.

The next year, CoD: Warzone and CoD: Vanguard had a similar collaboration with the snack foods. This allowed players to earn double XP and double weapon XP. When announcing the promotion, the official Call of Duty Twitter account eloquently proclaimed, 'One hand on the controller, the other in a bag of Doritos.'

Besties 5ever?

The key to this collaboration's long-lasting success doesn't just lie with their shared target audience. It's also about persistence.

Most brands give up on partnerships like this after a year or two if the fireworks aren't immediately there. But these things take time, and lots of it.

It took years for Doritos to be seen as a gamer food, rather than an ordinary party snack. Likewise, it took years for CoD to become more than a standard FPS franchise and to encompass a larger gaming experience tied to real-world foods.

So the big secret to a successful partnership? It's persistence, persistence, persistence.

As once put in the immortal words of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, 'It's about drive, it's about power, we stay hungry, we devour, put in the work, put in the hours and take what's ours.'

-Devin, Copywriter