YouTube creators have long been hawking their own merch and promoting brands, but have you ever seen one featured on a bag of potato chips?
If you’re in Japan next month, you just might. “YouTuber Chips,” or “Yuuchuubaa Chippusu” as it says on the bag in Japanese, are soon to hit the shelves there, according to a report by Kotaku. The text accompanying one unboxing video for the chips (as fed through Google Translate) identified the product’s pre-release date as February 27, while general release will take place on March 6. The chips will sell for 171 yen (or about $1.60) plus tax.
According to Kotaku, the chips come in a “lightly salted flavor” and with collectible trading cards. Each pack will include a single card featuring one of the YouTube creators who will also appear on the packaging.
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With over 5.6 million subscribers, HikakinTV is the biggest creator to get his face on the chip bags so far. And naturally, he made a video about the new product:
It’s not new for video creators to promote others’ products and sell their own. (YouTube’s Creator Academy – a kind of how-to guide for burgeoning YouTubers – even offers a section on how to “launch your own merchandise.”) Connor Franta, for instance, came out with his own coffee line in 2015, called Common Culture Coffee. Still, that’s a much different business model than a big chip company coming up with a product whose branding relies on the likeness of several different YouTube creators.
Though you cannot really go wrong buying a bag of “lightly salted flavor” chips, the real draw here seems like it’s the trading cards. Could they become collectible items in their own right? Maybe! And if they do, we’ll undoubtedly see more companies branding their products with limited-edition YouTube faces going forward.
