What The Hail?
Our society today is filled with
corporations surrounding the people with their products through
advertisements. With so many ads, it is
impossible for people to process or remember them all. The challenge for corporations is to make an advertisement
that stands out in the audiences mind, and stays there.
In 2010,
Snickers produced an advertisement for the Super Bowl that stood out in the
minds of many people. The tagline at the
end of the commercial was, “you’re not you when you’re hungry.” The ad proved to be effective through the use
of an iconic actress, humour, hypermasculinity, tagline and a relation to the
target audience by addressing a need.
Having a
celebrity icon in a commercial immediately grabs the attention of the viewer,
especially when that icon is as universally loved as Betty White is. At the time of the advertisement, Betty White
was seemly everywhere; she reeled in high ratings for Saturday Night Live when
she hosted, winning an Emmy for her performance. She was the star of the new sitcom Hot in
Cleveland. All of Betty White’s success
in turn helped the commercial to be successful.
Another
effective way for corporations to increase the awareness of their
advertisements is to instill humour.
Humour is arguably the most important piece of what makes an
advertisement memorable. The benefit of
humour in advertising is that when something is funny, it is talked about and
shared on social media. These
corporations have their ads viewed without having to pay for extra television
airtime. During the Snickers commercial,
on multiple occasions, I exhibited sidesplitting laughter. During the 30-second ad it displayed multiple
funny ideas. The first was Betty White
running the route at turtle speed. The
second was Betty getting absolutely crushed by an opposing player into the
mud. The third was a sexual
comment. We see sexual comments in
almost everything, but when it came from the mouth of a 90-year-old woman, it
was truly hilarious. The fourth was the overall premise; a never-done-before
sketch is always funny. The fifth was
how they used an old lady in an ad targeted at younger men and was still funny.
A tactic
corporations use to produce an effective ad is sadly exploitation. They have their target audience and they
pinpoint their insecurities. “In our
identity we internalize particular ways of thinking, feeling and behaving, we
take on a relation to identity” (Barthes 1973, pp. 65-6). Snickers use the concept of hypermasculinty
to appeal to the common man. In today’s
society, men aren’t feeling like real
men because of corporations using overly manly men in their ads to make the
audience think if they use the product they will become a real man. “Advertisements exist as a means of selling
products by creating an association between a brand a desirable lifestyle or
identity.” (O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. 2012, p. 162). In the Snickers commercial, it uses
hypermasculinity to perfection as it implies that you will play like an old
lady without eating Snickers.
A catchy
tagline or slogan also contributes to a successful ad. In the Snickers commercial, the tagline is
“You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
The
commercial also addresses a need. All
men have experience hunger while playing sports, and we’ve all felt drowsy and
subpar. Snickers brilliantly addresses
this issue and says if you eat their product, you can be yourself and play to
your full potential.
Through the
use of an iconic actress, humour, hypermaculinity, tagline and the addressing of
a need, The Snickers commercial was extremely successful and won the award for
best super bowl ad.
Reference
Barthes, R 1973, Mythologies,
Paladin, London
O’Shaughnessy, M., &
Stadler, J.. (2012). Media and Society. 5th Ed.
South Melbourne, Oxford
University Press.
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