Orange Bag Returns After Facebook Campaign Pushes Strauss to Restore Cheetos Peanut

A Facebook group created to bring back Strauss’s Cheetos Peanut snack celebrated when the company announced it was returning to store shelves after several years away. What began as nostalgic memes, jokes, calls to action, and repeated appeals to customer service turned into a sustained pressure campaign that Strauss says produced a roughly 30% jump in inquiries about the snack in the last two weeks alone.

Strauss consumer services manager Adi Ben Yishai said the company has long seen emotional attachments to its brands, including fans who dress up as products, tattoo them on their bodies, or organize online campaigns and petitions. She said Cheetos Peanut was one of several discontinued products whose comeback was driven by consumer demand, alongside items such as Milkie Ketzef Kafiyot, Mamulda, Maadan HaGolan, Yotvata milkshake and Assam’s Massibamba. Some were first brought back as limited editions and later became permanent after strong demand.

The Cheetos group’s organizers are Alon Avid, Lia Barkman and Or Shmerling, all young Israelis who met through Facebook and bonded over the missing snack. Barkman said the community has been active since March 2024, while Avid said the snack disappeared around 2021 or 2022, shortly before he left the army. The group members posted mock ads, redesigns, songs and other fan material, and even received a package of only two bags from Strauss, which many assumed meant a lifetime supply.

Strauss also joined the conversation directly, with the Cheetos product manager Shiri posting in the group. Ben Yishai said the company tracks such requests over time and sometimes contacts fans before anyone else when a product returns. For now, she said, “Cheetos Peanut is here to stay, at least for now,” and the open question is whether shoppers will keep buying it once the nostalgia wave passes.