Snickers: The Brady Bunch
Snickers tasked BBDO New York with creating a high-impact Super Bowl commercial to reinforce their 'You're Not You When You're Hungry' campaign. The goal was to maintain brand salience among a massive national audience by delivering a memorable, humorous narrative that clearly communicated the product's benefit. The client required a concept that would stand out in a crowded advertising landscape while appealing to multiple generations.
Creative Idea
A hungry Danny Trejo replaced Marcia Brady in a classic 1970s sitcom scene.
Snickers inserted a hostile, hungry Danny Trejo into a classic 1970s Brady Bunch scene to demonstrate that hunger changes your personality, using iconic nostalgia to make their long-running brand message feel fresh and hilariously disruptive during the Super Bowl.
The Axe Throwing Marcia Brady Masterclass
Engineering the Brady Illusion
To achieve the seamless integration of Danny Trejo into the 1970s footage, the production team at The Mill utilized a sophisticated digital mapping process. They reconstructed the original Brady Bunch living room set with precise spatial dimensions to ensure the perspective matched the vintage camera lenses. Because the original footage featured flat, multi-shadow lighting typical of 1970s television, the team had to meticulously replicate these lighting conditions on the physical set to ensure Trejo did not look out of place.
The Mouth Replacement Technique
A significant technical hurdle involved making the original actors, Florence Henderson and Robert Reed, appear to interact with the new cast. The production cast body doubles with similar facial structures to film new dialogue against a green screen. These performances were then digitally tracked and the mouths were transplanted onto the archival footage. To complete the illusion, the final composite underwent a rigorous post-production process to add artificial grain and color-grading, effectively mimicking the degraded quality of 1970s celluloid.
Improvisation and Authenticity
While the technical work was precise, the performance relied on spontaneity. Danny Trejo performed the axe-throwing scene for real, embedding the weapon into the drywall of the replica set. Similarly, Steve Buscemi’s iconic tantrum at the top of the stairs was largely improvised. The project also featured a unique musical touch; woodwind musician David G. Weiss arranged the theme song, noting that performing the iconic melody while watching Trejo and Buscemi inhabit the roles of his childhood crushes was a distinct career highlight.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
Snickers possessed a clear, ownable brand platform that equates hunger with a temporary loss of one's true self.
Category
Confectionery brands typically rely on generic taste appeals or high-energy lifestyle imagery to market their products.
Customer
Viewers crave entertainment that bridges generational gaps through shared cultural touchstones and surprising, high-concept humor.
Culture
The rise of nostalgia marketing and the Super Bowl as a premier stage for high-production, narrative-driven advertising.
Company
Snickers possessed a clear, ownable brand platform that equates hunger with a temporary loss of one's true self.
Category
Confectionery brands typically rely on generic taste appeals or high-energy lifestyle imagery to market their products.
Strategy:
Use cultural icons to dramatize the personality-altering effects of hunger through unexpected narrative friction.
Customer
Viewers crave entertainment that bridges generational gaps through shared cultural touchstones and surprising, high-concept humor.
Culture
The rise of nostalgia marketing and the Super Bowl as a premier stage for high-production, narrative-driven advertising.
Strategy:
Use cultural icons to dramatize the personality-altering effects of hunger through unexpected narrative friction.
Strategy Technique
Create a Tension Between Product & World
By placing a gritty, modern biker into a wholesome, vintage sitcom, the campaign creates immediate friction. This clash highlights the product's role as the only solution to the resulting personality transformation.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Retell a Known Story
The campaign recontextualizes a famous 1970s sitcom scene by inserting modern, aggressive characters. This juxtaposition creates humor by breaking the expected tone of the original footage.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign excels through its flawless comedic casting and meticulous production design, which perfectly recreates a beloved television era to deliver a surprising punchline.
Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi deliver hilarious, high-contrast performances that perfectly subvert the wholesome Brady Bunch dynamic.
The living room set, costumes, and props are recreated with incredible accuracy to transport the viewer instantly into the 1970s show.
“The magic comes from the stark contrast between the flawless, nostalgic production design and the absurdly aggressive performances of the guest stars.”
