Snickers: Fix the World
Snickers aimed to re-energize its "You're not you when you're hungry" platform. The client sought to connect with adults experiencing everyday frustrations, reinforcing Snickers as the go-to solution for hunger-induced grumpiness to drive brand relevance and sales.
Creative Idea
A giant Snickers bar was dropped into a hole to comically fix the world's problems.
Snickers humorously addressed widespread modern annoyances by suggesting that the world's collective grumpiness could be solved by feeding it a colossal Snickers bar, reinforcing the idea that hunger makes people irritable and a Snickers can fix it.
Feeding a Two Ton Candy Bar to the Earth
A Satirical Nod to Hilltop
The campaign served as a sharp subversion of the iconic 1971 "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" commercial. Rather than leaning into the "sadvertising" trend of overly earnest Super Bowl spots, director Tom Kuntz and DP Linus Sandgren opted for absurdist satisfaction. They utilized an original "earworm" track by Walker Music to parody the message of global harmony, suggesting instead that modern annoyances - like adults on scooters and "smart" devices eavesdropping - could only be solved by dropping a giant Snickers into a hole in the ground.
Massive Scale and Real World Stunts
To ground the digital VFX by The Mill in reality, Mars Wrigley constructed a Guinness World Record breaking chocolate nut bar at their Waco, Texas plant. Weighing 4,728 pounds, the bar was equivalent to more than 41,000 single-size Snickers. This physical feat complemented a star-studded long-form cut featuring Luis Guzmán, Miranda Cosgrove, and Bill Walton, alongside custom creative for WWE WrestleMania 36 featuring Aaron Donald.
Dominating the Super Bowl Conversation
The strategy delivered massive scale, reaching 193.8 million viewers in the U.S. and generating over 1.5 billion PR impressions. Beyond the screen, the brand maintained real-time engagement on Twitter, claiming to "fix" specific blunders as they occurred during the game. This 10th-anniversary milestone for the "You’re Not You When You’re Hungry" platform helped cement a legacy that has driven a 15.9% global sales growth for the brand across its lifespan.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Snickers credibly delivers a satisfying, hunger-curbing snack that can quickly improve one's mood and focus.
Category
The candy bar category often focuses on taste, energy, or indulgence, but rarely positions itself as a solution to global grumpiness.
Customer
People felt overwhelmed by a litany of modern annoyances, seeking simple, relatable explanations and a quick, satisfying escape from daily frustrations.
Culture
A pervasive cultural sentiment of shared frustration with trivial modern inconveniences and a collective desire for easy, humorous fixes.
Company
Snickers credibly delivers a satisfying, hunger-curbing snack that can quickly improve one's mood and focus.
Category
The candy bar category often focuses on taste, energy, or indulgence, but rarely positions itself as a solution to global grumpiness.
Strategy:
Leverage shared frustrations to position a simple product as a universal mood-regulator.
Customer
People felt overwhelmed by a litany of modern annoyances, seeking simple, relatable explanations and a quick, satisfying escape from daily frustrations.
Culture
A pervasive cultural sentiment of shared frustration with trivial modern inconveniences and a collective desire for easy, humorous fixes.
Strategy:
Leverage shared frustrations to position a simple product as a universal mood-regulator.
Strategy Technique
Exaggerate to Reveal the Truth
The campaign exaggerated common daily frustrations to an absurd degree, humorously revealing the underlying truth that many problems stem from hunger-induced grumpiness.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Dramatize the Solution
The campaign dramatized Snickers as the ultimate solution by depicting a colossal bar dropped into a massive hole, comically implying it could fix all global frustrations.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its use of musical storytelling and comedic timing, effectively translating the brand's core message into a grand, relatable, and absurd spectacle.
The lyrics cleverly articulate common modern frustrations with witty observations, building a relatable and humorous foundation for the Snickers solution.
The original song's evolving mood, from melancholic individual laments to an anthemic collective chorus, perfectly guides the emotional arc of the narrative.
The diverse and expressive cast effectively embodies a wide range of relatable modern frustrations and then transitions convincingly to collective hope and satisfaction.
The direction masterfully blends intimate individual vignettes with large-scale crowd scenes, maintaining comedic timing and visual impact throughout the escalating narrative.
The campaign's brilliance lies in the seamless synergy between its witty lyrical storytelling, the evocative musical score, and the strong ensemble acting, all directed to build a grand, humorous, and memorable narrative.
