Diageo’s ‘Jane Walker’ arrives after Doritos’ proposed female brand faded

A few weeks after a fizzled attempt by Doritos to launch a brand for women, Johnnie Walker is rolling out a female version of its Striding Man icon known as Jane Walker, the Striding Woman.

The world largest spirits company launched the brand Monday on the heels of its #LoveScotch campaign, which had billboard, social media and magazine ads showing young women drinking scotch together.  A few years ago, Diageo hired Christina Hendricks, the actress who played the office manager Joan on TV’s “Mad Men, to appear in spots.

“We realized we should be successfully and actively marketing to women,” Diageo’s chief marketing officer, Syl Saller, told The Wall Street Journal last year. “That’s been really positive for us, particularly in categories that would have been considered more masculine, like scotch.”

The Jane Walker icon will appear on a special-edition offering of the Black Label blend known as the Jane Walker Edition, which will launch nationwide in March.

For every Jane Walker Edition bottle made, Johnnie Walker will donate $1 to organizations supporting women’s progress, up to $250,000.

“Jane Walker is a celebration of the many achievements of women on the journey towards progress in gender equality,” a spokesman for Johnnie Walker said in an emailed statement to FOX Business.

The recent attempt by PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay to launch Doritos for women was pulled back earlier this month.

Indra Nooyi, the CEO of the company, told WNYC’s Freakonomics that Frito-Lay would make a “low-crunch,” female-friendly version of Doritos that will “not have so much of the flavor stick on the fingers.”

After online criticism, a PepsiCo media representative said Frito-Lay already has Doritos for women: “They’re called Doritos.”

At the same time, the representative said, “we know needs and preferences continue to evolve and we’re always looking for new ways to engage and delight our consumers.”