COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — While one Ohio native celebrated winning Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl ad contest, another director in the Buckeye State began planning his next entry for 2026.

Creator Eric McGuinn, the commercial director and cinematographer for Racket Media in Cincinnati, made a 30-second spot for the 2025 competition, which he shared on social media.

“The winner of the 2025 Doritos Crash the Super Bowl Ad Contest has been announced, and … It was NOT us,” McGuinn wrote. “That being said, I had a blast directing this project and cannot wait to submit to the competition again in the future.”

The commercial follows a man snacking on Doritos when the doorbell rings, prompting him to rinse his orange-coated fingers in his goldfish’s bowl. As he welcomes his friend inside, the fish, now intrigued by the lingering Doritos flavor, leaps out of the bowl and into the open chip bag.

Oblivious, the man hands the bag to his friend, who blindly grabs a handful — unknowingly scooping up the fish with the chips. Just as the friend bites down, the man notices the empty fishbowl and realizes what happened. The two freeze in horror before erupting into screams, leaving viewers laughing.

“As I was thinking about ideas for the contest, my mind kept going to the dust that is often left behind on one’s fingers when eating Doritos,” McGuinn said in an email to NBC4. “I thought it’d be funny to explore this idea further. … It only felt natural to have the fish become obsessed with the flavor of the Doritos. Everything snowballed from that point.”

McGuinn said the shoot was done in one day, so the team had to work fast, and the leaping goldfish proved to be the trickiest part of the production that took a last-minute fix.

“The plastic goldfish we ordered online didn’t hold up on camera,” McGuinn said. “Eventually, we decided to use a green screen, placed behind the bowl and hoped that the fish would move in a way that allowed us to digitally composite it into the scene later. Thankfully, it did.”

One commenter summed up the appeal of the submission, writing, “The best ads have the least dialogue, and this one takes the cake!”

Despite not winning this year, McGuinn remains optimistic and excited for future contests. He also encouraged followers to check out the ad from the official winner, Dublin, Ohio native Dylan Bradshaw, at doritoscrash.com. See a report about Bradshaw in the video player above.

Doritos’ Super Bowl ad contest, which Frito-Lay announced the return of in September, originally ran from 2006 to 2016.

“When I submitted my ad in 2013, people told me the spot I made would never see the light of day, but I knew this was an opportunity to make something special,” said previous winner Ben Callner. “After my commercial, ‘Goat 4 Sale,’ ended up winning and airing during the big game, it truly changed the trajectory of my career. I’m so glad Doritos is bringing this campaign back and giving that same chance to other people.”

The winning commercial was selected through the following process:

• A panel of judges selected the top 25 submissions – one for each year Doritos aired a commercial during the Super Bowl.
• Then three finalists were announced in January and fans voted for their favorite online.
• The winning ad’s creator, selected by fan votes from the three finalists, received $1 million and an all-expenses paid trip to New Orleans for the Big Game.