Snickers is a delicious candy, but their commercials are pretty odd. The snickers commercial from the super bowl is no exception. Their typical approach is “You’re not you when your hungry”, but this year it seems like they are taking a much different approach. The commercial is mostly short comments on the state of our country, environment, and human interactions. It ranges from everyone taking dirty pictures to children being named after vegetables and at some point, they think that feeding the earth a giant snickers bar will address these issues. Looking at this add from an ecocriticism view, there is quiet a bit to unpack.
Nature is oddly represented in this add. It is only on the screen when a large group of people are walking towards the giant hole. This stands out to me as a representation of how people treat the earth, by walking all over it. Mars company has been working towards becoming a more sustainable business, and has some pretty major sustainability objectives for the next 30 years based on their sustainability score card.
One of the first things to stand out to me about this add was the joking attitude about whether or not this giant snickers would actually work. In a way this stood out to me as a joke about attempts to address these worldly issues. Will anything work? We don’t know. I very well could be reading into this too much but there is something to be said about the odd use of humor. People try things to change the issues that they covered in this add like politics, and technological issues but my message from this was is it really changing anything?
Lastly the idea of dropping a giant snickers into a man made hole in the ground? What a thought. For me this is just odd and speaks to the damage that humans have done. This add seems almost satirical in nature. They are making light of a very serious issue; humans are so worried and caught up in these other issues but fail to address one of the most important. If we destroy our planet, there will be no one to worry about a surveillance state, no politicians, and no children to name after vegetables. If we stop caring (like dropping giant pieces of candy into the ground) we are only hurting ourselves.
Sam’s Analyzing Mass Media Blog 
100% agree, this ad really frustrated me because to the casual viewer, they will probably come away thinking about how snickers is making great changes and saving the environment. The fact of the matter however, is that this ad did a lot but didn’t say anything. How do dirty pictures, weird names, and so on actually matter in the scope of things when we continue to destroy our planet. The inclusion of their sustainability score card was a really nice touch and I appreciate seeing someone think critically about the company like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your post. Good input on the Snicker commercial. Yes, it did poke fun of fruit names and superficial things that are going on. The message can be viewed in many different ways, from unity, commercialism and so forth. I really had to watch the commercial a few times, to analyze it. At the end of the day, I thought it was weird and did not want to go buy a Snicker bar 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi, Sam. I agree with your point about having an odd sense of human about important topics. What seems strange to me, is that the people in charge of theses ads, the marketing employees, they are great at doing what they are hired to do. What they are hired to do is make these companies seem as environmentally friendly as possible, or at least not as the main offenders. To some extent, that is true anyway. The consumption method of humans allows for the existence and even thriving of large companies. More and more we see that companies (things that have money) are able to push propaganda in the form of their ads, making people think better of a company. What must be understood is that large companies do not tend to invest in the future without monetary benefit. So, the good thing I can say about this, is that at least people are usually influenced by things they like, so maybe people will be influenced to buy more Snickers and recycle more…there’s my odd sense of humor. Great post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sam, You have some really cool insights and I appreciate your posting Mars Sustainability Score Card. It is nice to learn about Mars’ attempts to advance causes such as renewable energy, human rights, and wellbeing. Interestingly, per some of the same topics, listed on the Score Card, I also read else that environmental agencies have continued to lodge complaints against Mars based on their continuing mis-treatment of the environment, in spite of their pledge to do a better job a decade ago. Enclosed is an article from Washington Post, just recently in October of 2019.https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/climate-environment/mars-chocolate-deforestation-climate-change-west-africa/
That said, I hate to be a Debbie Downer about Mars/Snickers bar, as afterall, it IS MY FAVORITE candy bar! I remember my mom used to give me a quarter in junior high school every Friday, as a treat, to buy a candy bar after school and I always chose Snickers. So, I do love Snickers and it still has a special place in my heart. But, looking at its parent company, Mars’, sustainability record, I wonder if they are only crafting these “sustainability” messages and finally taking actions because they realized they had to! Otherwise, if they don’t do something and if they continue to not care about planet earth, their bottom line, aka profits, may go away.
By the way, I also read in Dr. Pike’s Media Studies and Ecocriticism that only further solidified my incredulity about Mars/Snickers public marketing message: “Noam Chomsky and Ed Heran write of the need to question a media controlled by ‘large, profit-seeing corporations, owned and controlled by quite wealthy people.” Also that “Chomsky and Herman describe as (first of) five filters of the ‘Propaganda Model’: the content must fit the profit motive and goals of the owners.”
Lastly, I totally agree with you on the oddness of the commercial, especially as the chorus sang “it’s a dumb thing to do. So dumb, and if it works, we all win.” You are right that it may be satirical in nature, but I wish that Snickers’ gave a bit more thought to portraying human beings caring about the planet–and not just doing another “dumb thing.” I actually believe, collectively, we are more aware of our environmental footprint than ever before and are doing a good job raising the standard of our action in stewarding our planet.
LikeLiked by 1 person