The People's Chip is a potato chip flavour discovered and advocated by Australian radio comedy duo Hamish & Andy. The flavour is gravy, derived from roast beef. 60,495 packets of the chips were manufactured by The Smith's Snackfood Company and given away in a promotional exercise. Retail chip packets of this flavour were manufactured and went on sale on 11 August 2008 in Australia for a trial period of two weeks.
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The invention of this flavour started with a tongue-in-cheek question asked by the duo of the listeners to their radio show: Whether the existence of the flavouring known as "Light 'n' Tangy" preceded the manufacture of the chip of this flavour, or whether the flavour was spliced together from the putative flavours 'Light' and 'Tangy' especially for this chip, and the combined flavour "Light 'n' Tangy" was thereby created.
A representative of Smith's telephoned the show to attempt to answer the question, and it emerged in the course of the conversation that it was entirely possible to create a customized potato chip flavour.
Hamish & Andy then asked their listeners to offer up suggestions for the chip flavour they would like created. Some of the rejected candidates included:
The wide range of flavours being discussed caused Hamish to believe that it could be possible to mix all known flavours together to make one flavour, referred to as 'The Everything Chip'. Andy believed that this would be a terrible idea. To prove it, he created a blend of the most popular flavours, and invited Hamish to consume it, whereupon Hamish experienced revulsion and agreed that The Lot is a terrible flavour.
A selection of six flavours were selected by popular demand to make the shortlist for the online poll which featured:
Over 40,000 votes were cast as to which should be the winning flavour. 'Gravy' became the clear winner.
By May 2008, Smith's had created three candidates for the exact flavour of the gravy chip. Hamish & Andy were required to select one for production.
The three flavours brought to Hamish and Andy were:
Mick Lee's Roast Beef became the chip flavour to be produced for the show.
Initially, 495 packets were manufactured, with 99 packets delivered to each mainland state. Some fans slept out overnight to obtain the chips. Some recipients sold theirs on Ebay much to Hamish & Andy's disapproval. Smiths then announced they would manufacture 60,000 more packets to be distributed free of charge across the country by outlets picked by Hamish & Andy. These chips were released on 27 June. Melbourne and Adelaide ran out of chips within the day, and Canberra within the hour.
Following the success of the distribution of 60,000 gravy chip packets, Hamish and Andy announced on 7 July that Smiths had agreed to sell The People's Chip in stores across Australia for two weeks beginning 11 August. The announcement came after much hate (or, as Hamish described it, "passion") mail the duo received from fans who were unable to secure a packet on 27 June. The 500,000 bags that were released by Smiths around Coles and Woolworths stores on 11 August were quick to sell out, and not at all coming close to the two weeks that Smiths believed they would last throughout stores.
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