Doritos has officially entered its risqué era with a bit of help from Walton Goggins—man of the moment, king of chaos, and now… a “Spicy, but Not Too Spicy Plumber.”
That’s the setup for the brand’s latest flavor drop: Golden Sriracha, a tangy-sweet heat bomb aimed squarely at Gen Z’s craving for “swicy” snacks (that’s sweet + spicy for the olds). The campaign centerpiece is a hilariously sultry three-minute short film—titled, what else, “A Spicy, but Not Too Spicy Plumber”—starring Goggins in full denim-clad seduction mode.
Set in a house populated by a bombshell, a sultry roommate, and a surprisingly forward cougar, the short plays like a porno setup gone beautifully off the rails. Goggins shows up to “check their pipes,” only to whip out… a massive pipe wrench. And yes, the dialogue goes precisely where you hope it does.
When the roommate hears “banging,” when the cougar offers to “test the water pressure,” when Goggins says he needs to “go down there and take a good look,” you brace for skin, but instead, Goggins is all business. Stoic. Focused. Deeply committed to plumbing excellence. The only thing that distracts him? A bag of Golden Sriracha Doritos.
The film ends with a pizza guy arriving with an “extra-large sausage,” ordered by—you guessed it—the plumber, a perfect tag on a spot that walks the line between Red Shoe Diaries and absurdist comedy. Watch below:
“Doritos has always been about bold self-expression,” said Tina Mahal, SVP of Marketing at PepsiCo Foods U.S. “With Golden Sriracha, we’re embracing complexity—flavor that builds, content that suggests. This campaign lets us playfully subvert expectations while serving a flavor we believe could be our next mega-hit.”
Created by agency Rethink, the campaign launches July 30 across digital, social, and outdoor, including a full takeover of NYC billboards and an exclusive “spicier” content channel unlocked via Doritos’ Instagram.
Sidebar convo, Goggins seriously seems to be everywhere right now. He delivers glowingly twisted performances in The White Lotus Season 3 on HBO and the post-apocalyptic hit Fallout (Prime Video)—both Emmy-nominated entries.
In Fallout (renewed through Season 3), he plays Cooper Howard, aka “The Ghoul,” a key figure in the wasteland world, and has confirmed that the much-anticipated Season 2 arrives in December 2025.
In film, he can soon be seen in The Luckiest Man in America (released April 2025), a game‑show true‑crime drama based on Michael Larson’s 1984 Press Your Luck exploit, co-starring Paul Walter Hauser, Maisie Williams, and David Strathairn.
He also appears in The Uninvited, directed by his wife Nadia Conners. This stylish ensemble comedy drama debuted at SXSW 2024 and hits U.S. theaters in April 2025 with a cast including Pedro Pascal, Elizabeth Reaser, and Lois Smith.
Oh, and did we mention Goggins was also the face of Walmart’s “Who Knew?” campaign, plus Doritos’ Golden Sriracha launch, with an SNL hosting gig in the pipeline? Not to mention the emerging buzz around a rumored role as M. Bison in the next Street Fighter film.
Between subtle menace and swagger, Goggins isn’t just on the rise—he’s skyrocketing.
Colin Costello is the West Coast Editor of Reel 360 News. Contact him at colin@reel360.com or follow him on Twitter at @colinthewriter1
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