Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos until 1998) is a crunchy corn-cheese puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo.

Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the United States.

In 2010, Cheetos was ranked as the top selling brand of cheese puffs in its primary market of the U.S.; worldwide the annual retail sales totaled approximately $4 billion.

The cheese-flavored snack sold quickly, but Doolin did not have the production or distribution capacity to support a nationwide launch.

[4] Frito-Lay merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company to form PepsiCo in 1965, prompting further distribution of Cheetos outside of North America.

Most of the competing cheese-flavored snacks are distributed in specific regions of the U.S., and as of 2010 Cheetos remains as the top-selling cheese puff in America.

They accompany other Frito-Lay products in the Natural line and compete in the market space occupied by other health-conscious snack foods, such as Pirate's Booty.

[19] As the distribution of Cheetos expanded outside the U.S. to include more than 36 countries,[20] localized versions were produced to conform to regional tastes and cultural preferences.

[30] According to Frito-Lay records, Flamin' Hot Cheetos, a spicy version of the product, was developed at the company's headquarters in Texas starting in 1989, as part of a project led by Lynne Greenfeld, and introduced in test markets in the summer of 1990, alongside Flamin' Hot versions of Fritos and Lays.

[31] They became available nationwide in early 1992, and The Washington Post would go on to call them "something of a cultural phenomenon",[32] with Newsweek noting that it "rejuvenated the brand" and would become a "central element in Cheetos marketing".

[34] In 2018, Fox Searchlight started developing a biopic about the origin story of Flamin' Hot Cheetos as told by Montañez.

The process takes approximately 19 minutes and each half hour an in-house lab team inspects and taste-tests each batch.

[51] In 2003, Chester was first rendered as a computer-generated character in the United States, while continuing to appear in a traditionally animated form in some other countries where the brand is sold.

[52] Beginning in 2008, Cheetos advertising and promotion broadened in regard to age appeal, with a revised focus on an adult demographic.

In this personification, Chester speaks with a deep voice and encourages people to use their Cheetos in acts of revenge or to solve problems.

[53][54] The scenario depicted in this commercial exemplifies the adult-oriented themes of subversion and revenge, which continue to be prevalent in Cheetos advertisements produced since 2008.

[55] On August 15, 2017, Frito-Lay announced the opening of its The Spotted Cheetah pop-up restaurant in New York, with dishes made with Cheetos with chef Anne Burrell.