Have you ever wanted a podcast about a mysterious Pringles flavor with puzzles that hint towards the ingredients involved? No? Well, it’s too late to refuse. It’s happened.

I have recently been immersed into the world of the Pringles Mystery Popcast. Which is impressive, considering we’re talking about a weekly serial about a particularly confusing chip that lasts about three minutes an episode. Regardless of the surreality and brevity of the show, it has roped me in. And that’s part of why.

Pringles has decided to do something pretty interesting with their new mystery flavor. Every week, a new tiny podcast episode detailing the journeys of an investigative reporter trying to figure out what flavor the new chip contains is released to the (criminally undersized) audience. Not only are their corny jokes actually kinda funny, but each episode contains a fairly basic word-based puzzle that, when solved, reveals an ingredient used in the flavor.

Here, let’s listen to the first episode together. Come back when you’re done. I’m not going anywhere. This page is entirely in HTML, so I couldn’t do anything fancy and leave even if I wanted.

Did you notice?

B-unit

E-unit

A-unit

N-unit

S-unit.

B E A N S

Not exactly difficult, but clever. Same thing goes for the rest of the puzzles so far. There’s definitely some care and thought put into this small little marketing stunt, and it doesn’t have to be overly difficult or overly bombastic to give you that impression. Allegedly, all of the puzzles even work near exactly the same in the other two languages the Popcast is airing, which is a pretty solid example of effort if you ask me. (If any of you wonderful bilingual speakers of French or Spanish want to look over that, I would be greatly appreciative. Romance languages are not my forte.)

The event, in the end, is leading up to a $10,000 (CA) prize, which is the largest sum of money something like this has offered in a while, to my knowledge. Now, you have to be a legal resident of Canada to play for this reason, but honestly, that doesn’t even interest me as much as the ride itself does, so my poor American heart isn’t losing any blood-flow. But if you are a Canadian puzzle fan who has reached the age of majority in their province or territory, I’d look at that.

And the ride is still going strong. Eight episodes are listed on the website for the contest, and the fourth one has just dropped as I’ve been working on the article. This just now puts us in the mid-game. And if the future episode titles are anything to go by, the late game is going to be a confusing but welcome treat. I know my friend Alex Bale is waiting for a particular episode, considering it matches the theme of his most recent video.)

So, what are you waiting for? Go play a Pringles ARG. I’ll link you up here.

And, y’know, if you want, you can always head over to @PuzzlingMatters on Twitter. I’m not begging for follows, but at the same time, I totally am. So go do that if you like Twitter and mediocre content.