Cheetos and Artist Navinder Turn Cheetle Dust into Wearable Art

PepsiCo snack brand Cheetos launches its biggest influencer campaign - and first in the UK - to bring the authentic, messy joy of the snack to major British retailers. The iconic global brand, worth $3bn, is launching the campaign with global digital agency DEPT® to carve a cult following as the product enters major retailers in the UK. Featuring social content from two fashion-forward creators, the campaign will capture the hearts and appetites of gen z snackers with a drop of bespoke Navinder Nangla tee designs, reimagined with a ‘Cheetle’ twist.

Playing on the orange dust leftover from the snacks, otherwise known as 'Cheetle Dust,' the campaign emulates the Cheetos brand with an organic influencer campaign centred around a corner shop-style and moments of playful inspiration.

The social first campaign, created by lead agency DEPT, embeds the ‘mischievous genius’ of British-Punjabi graffiti artist and designer Navinder Nangla and fashion icon Aly Meghani, who boasts 1.3 million TikTok followers, into the creative from the very start. The two creators don’t just star in the ads; they bring their authentic vision to tap into creative audiences around the UK.

The story unfolds in a series of social moments, showing a spark of artistic inspiration from both creators’ points of view to increase reach. In a ‘caught on camera’ style video in the heart of London’s creative scene, Soho, a Cheetle-covered tee becomes a moment of inspiration for Navinder. The sight of Aly candidly wiping the iconic Cheetle dust on his t-shirt triggers the street artist to create a bespoke piece of wearable art directly onto Aly’s front. To his own followers, Aly shares the moment from his perspective, with the series culminating in Navinder’s ‘Pashion 4 Cheetoz’ tee drop.

The collaboration taps into gen z’s passion for relatability with a collection that blends humour, relevance, and creativity in all the right ways. It’s a bold move from the food and beverage powerhouse, and a credible way to weave ‘Cheetle dust’ into gen z culture, and elevate it to iconic status.

In a nod to gen z’s seamless blend of physical and digital living, the campaign harnesses the mundane to inspire online buzz across Instagram and TikTok and takes it into the real world.

Coming full circle, the campaign will wrap with Navinder announcing a limited drop of the Cheetos tees on Instagram. Tapping into the drop-style hype, T-shirts will be available via an exclusive pin drop corner shop location for one hour only.

Meanwhile 30+ fashion-forward gen z creators will amplify the brand and embrace Cheetos’ mark of mischief by posting corner shop fit checks; bringing together the bold voice of Cheetos with gritty, slice-of-life content and targeting a cult following from start to finish; and the energy will live on through lo-fi wrap films, TikTok-native behind the scenes, and raw, vlog-style content from creator attendees.

​Rachael Smith, Cheetos senior marketing lead, said, “Cheetos is part of US culture. We had to think differently to build our own gen z brand embedded in fashion and culture in the UK. A new mindset. A new marketing era for the brand. Partnering with Navinder & Aly has been an exciting collaboration as we take Cheetos beyond the shelf and into fashion culture.”

On the campaign, Bel Moretti, creative director at DEPT®, adds, “The opportunity to make a ‘thing’ over an ad with a brand like Cheetos doesn’t come around too often - so we knew we had to get it right. We leant into the sharpness and playfulness of our audience with an artist that truly understands the art in the irony, one that we knew would land the right balance of mainstream brand and niche audience references. And together we turned our dusty cheetle hand prints into a thing of wearable beauty.”