So from a feminist point of view, Snickers is my least favourite chocolate brand (yes, that’s even over Yorkie!)
If you’ve just watched this video, and are thinking ‘ermmm but hey? they’ve just clearly challenged some horrible sexist behaviour’, then please, read on. When i first started watching this video i too was excited that Snickers had ditched their usual hegemonic masculine attitude and actually engaged in some forward thinking advertising. But then came for the disappointment. ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’. All this brilliant attitude-challenging video, only for snickers to then give out the message that, actually, this shouldn’t be normal male behaviour, they’re just hungry. Yes, i get the idea behind the advert, they wanted to show people not being themselves. And yes, i love that they chose this scenario to do so, as there was clearly some gender equality based thought behind it. But to then simply blame it on hunger does nothing more than imply that the overall message of this viral is to ‘Eat a snickers, and go back to being that good old sexist arse hole you normally are you silly old builder!’
The saddest thing about this viral, for me, is that the intentions were clearly good ones, but somewhere along the line the tagline just didn’t quite match up and the message became distorted and blurred. This doesn’t however make up for their host of other questionable TV ads. The first of which being this one:
There were a few in this series, which saw grouchy, hungry men turning into famous ‘divas’ before eating a snickers and returning to their normal selves. These misogynist ads were eventually banned due to their sexist messages, portraying women in a very negative manner as whiny and moody, whilst in direct opposition with the cool headed male characters.
Another one of Snickers most famous campaigns was the series of TV adverts lead by Mr. T reminding men to ‘get some nuts!’.
Not one of these ads focuses on a woman, however i still find them problematic from a feminist perspective due to their attitudes towards how men should act. These ads give the message that strength and bravery are what it means to be a man, and that all males should be strong and macho, whilst simultaneously telling women that only men, who have ‘nuts’ should possess these traits.
On a lighter note though Snickers, i still prefer you over Nestle.
(For more on my reasons for hating Nestle, read here).
… rant over 🙂
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