Chester Cheetah, the iconic spokescat for the playful snack brand Cheetos from PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division, unveiled a new electoral polling model with the 3 feet by 4 feet one-of-a-kind Cheetos portraits of the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees – President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney.
Debuting on Facebook, the portraits – made entirely of more than 2,000 individual Cheetos cheese snacks – will serve as a leading indicator regarding which "big cheese" the country will elect this fall. For two weeks, fans can vote in Chester's sure-fire electoral poll for their favorite cheesy portrait – or candidate – for a chance to win these official portraits commemorating each political party's head cheese.
Chester Cheetah tapped renowned artist, Jason Baalman, to create the cheesy interpretations of both candidates based on recent Facebook profile images. It took a combined 100 hours of work sorting and gluing each individual Cheetos snack into place for two truly unique portraits.
Baalman is no stranger to Cheetos as a medium, having previously immortalized Conan O'Brien, Rachael Ray and most recently, CeeLo Green in the orange snack. Using thousands of Cheetos snacks and a blank canvas, his art has been inserted into the pop-culture conversation as he depicts some of Hollywood's most notable faces.
"During the presidential campaign season, Americans constantly turn to the polls to find out how their favorite candidate is stacking up along the way," said Ram Krishnan, vice president of marketing, Frito-Lay North America. "We decided to get in on the action by providing our fans with a truly cheesy way to add to the polling data. We know our fans are just as passionate about Cheetos as they are about America, so we can't wait to see who they'd pick as the next Commander in Cheese."
Fans can vote on www.facebook.com/ until 11:00 a.m. CT on Tuesday, Oct. 16. The results of this entirely un-scientific poll will be revealed just in time to help undecided voters during the presidential debates.
