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LA Times: The man who didn’t invent Flamin’ Hot Cheetos

makonero

makonero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,664
www.latimes.com

The man who didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Richard Montañez has for years told a story of how he dreamed up Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while working as a Frito-Lay janitor. The archival record, former employees and Frito-Lay itself say otherwise.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com

For the last decade, Richard Montañez has been telling the story of how he invented Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The world has been eating it up.

It goes like this: He was working as a janitor at Frito-Lay's Rancho Cucamonga plant when he dreamed up a chile-covered Cheeto and believed in himself enough to call up the chief executive to pitch his spicy idea.
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There's just one problem: Montañez didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos, according to interviews with more than a dozen former Frito-Lay employees, the archival record and Frito-Lay itself.

"None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin' Hot test market," Frito-Lay wrote in a statement to The Times, in response to questions about an internal investigation whose existence has not been previously disclosed. "We have interviewed multiple personnel who were involved in the test market, and all of them indicate that Richard was not involved in any capacity in the test market.
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The article is paywalled but it's a dollar for 8 weeks right now, I highly recommend reading this article. Fascinating how you can make a life around a lie!
 
Border

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
Aren't they making a movie out of his story? Why is Frito-Lay only now coming out to contradict his story?
 

Dis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,953
makonero said:
www.latimes.com

The man who didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Richard Montañez has for years told a story of how he dreamed up Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while working as a Frito-Lay janitor. The archival record, former employees and Frito-Lay itself say otherwise.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com




The article is paywalled but it's a dollar for 8 weeks right now, I highly recommend reading this article. Fascinating how you can make a life around a lie!
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We've seen multiple cases of white people putting on blackface and acting as if they're people of colour for years before being finally destroyed for it. We've seen Donald trump become president based on so many lies about his life. We've seen actor's spouses claim they're from entirely different countries for years and pretend to struggle speaking English to try and fit more into that stereotype idea they have of people from there. There are so many cases of people building a life on a lie by this point and every single case of it I just wonder "how did they get away with this for so fucking long?". It's absolutely insane that this story has been around for so long and has a movie adaption in the works with some big names attached and only now is this coming out.
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,790
Frito-Lay did nothing to stop the mythical story despite the fact that the snack was actually the brianchild of Lynne Greenfeld, a junior employee, who came up with the name in 1989 and whose recent query into why she got none of the credit spurred an internal investigation. "None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin' Hot test market," Frito-Lay wrote in a statement to the L.A. Times. "That doesn't mean we don't celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend."
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Janitor Who Rose to Fame as 'Creator' of Flamin' Hot Cheetos Is Branded a Fraud (thedailybeast.com)

also yahoo finance link of this article with no pay block

The man who didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos (yahoo.com)
 
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Necrovex

Necrovex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,110
Just finished listening to the Planet Money episode of this too. Sounds like Frito's history of record keeping was mediocre in those days.
 
OP
OP
makonero

makonero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,664
Necrovex said:
Just finished listening to the Planet Money episode of this too. Sounds like Frito's history of record keeping was mediocre in those days.
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Most of the claims can be disputed by the very timeline he gives—the big Exec he says he pitched didn't work for the company until after Flamin' Hot already existed!
 
themadcowtipper

themadcowtipper

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,112
Dis said:
We've seen multiple cases of white people putting on blackface and acting as if they're people of colour for years before being finally destroyed for it. We've seen Donald trump become president based on so many lies about his life. We've seen actor's spouses claim they're from entirely different countries for years and pretend to struggle speaking English to try and fit more into that stereotype idea they have of people from there. There are so many cases of people building a life on a lie by this point and every single case of it I just wonder "how did they get away with this for so fucking long?". It's absolutely insane that this story has been around for so long and has a movie adaption in the works with some big names attached and only now is this coming out.
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Cool, but wha does this have to do with the article.
 
Commedieu

Commedieu

Banned
Nov 11, 2017
15,025
so frito is run by morons..?

Thats the take home here. Boy, what else don't they know about their company..

Feels like he also could have just said he was a CEO and this is how you make chip business big and do talking circles. With the same outcome.
 

Deleted member 52442

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 24, 2019
10,774
i heard this story on ERA a few months ago, bookmarked it but never got around to reading it

fucking lol

also fucking paywalls sigh
 

Dis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,953
themadcowtipper said:
Cool, but wha does this have to do with the article.
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It has to do with the OP saying it's interesting that people can build lives based on a lie.....which they all did? The idea that people spend years lying about stuff so easily proven false and don't get caught for so long when they should?
 
krazen

krazen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,157
Gentrified Brooklyn
[
"None of our records show that Richard was involved in any capacity in the Flamin' Hot test market," Frito-Lay wrote in a statement to the L.A. Times. "That doesn't mean we don't celebrate Richard, but the facts do not support the urban legend."
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Guaranteed someone put two and to together awhile ago and the company and let him lie since it was mutually beneficial, not like his guest show appearances and magazine articles weren't worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising.
 
Guts Of Thor

Guts Of Thor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,698
makonero said:
www.latimes.com

The man who didn't invent Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Richard Montañez has for years told a story of how he dreamed up Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while working as a Frito-Lay janitor. The archival record, former employees and Frito-Lay itself say otherwise.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com




The article is paywalled but it's a dollar for 8 weeks right now, I highly recommend reading this article. Fascinating how you can make a life around a lie!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

ZF6wFod.gif
 
Zeshakag

Zeshakag

Member
Oct 28, 2017
463
I can't get into the article but do we have a conclusion on who DID invent Flaming Hot Cheetos?

Like, because I am seriously grateful to that person.
 
Amalthea

Amalthea

Member
Dec 22, 2017
5,685
Clearly food technicians or marketing people couldn't come up with someting as ingenious as chili-flavored Cheetos. Such an idea is simply too far-fetched to have been thought up by someone whose job it is to come up with new Cheetos-flavors all day. This is a one in a million idea only a random person, an outsider could have... like the companies janitor!
 
sibarraz

sibarraz

Prophet of Regret - One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
18,112
Did Frito ever awknowledged him as the creator? Or they just ignored him all these years?
 
LilScooby77

LilScooby77

Member
Dec 11, 2019
11,113
Another dumbass looking for attention it seems. Glad he didn't get to make his fake story into an actual movie.
 
Border

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
Sounds like the guy actually spearheaded a number of product lines, but when retelling the story has taken to claiming ownership of the more high-profile brands.
 
Salty Catfish

Salty Catfish

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,776
Florida
krazen said:
Guaranteed someone put two and to together awhile ago and the company and let him lie since it was mutually beneficial, not like his guest show appearances and magazine articles weren't worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising.
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Yeah this is my takeaway too. They had zero incentive to ask him to stop. Plus the "minority janitor rises to the top" narrative is not exactly bad for the brand image.
 
rjinaz

rjinaz

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
28,410
Phoenix
I remember reading stories about people that were inspired by this man and his story. That's really fucking sad.
 

Deleted member 4614

Oct 25, 2017
6,345
So glad this movie (hopefully) isn't coming out. It would have been tedious
 
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