Wow. Color me amazed.
Lisa Wade at Sociological Images dissects an Australian tv ad for Snickers – you know, the disgusting candy bar with nougat AND caramel AND peanuts covered in chocolate, the one that pulls your teeth out as you eat it.
What’s the hilarious hook of this ad? Construction workers shouting at women – shouting things like “have a great day” and “what don’t we want? Misogyny!” Wo, cool, right? No. The construction workers are hungry, so they’re out of their minds. Hahahaha that’s so funny.
The construction workers are actors, but the women on the street are real and their reactions are authentic. The first thing women do is get uncomfortable, revealing how a lifetime of experience makes them cringe at the prospect of a man yelling at them. But, as women realize what’s going on, they’re obviously delighted. They love the idea of getting support and respect instead of harassment from strange men.
Hahahahahaha stupid bitches, so that makes it all the more hilarious when it turns out that the men are just Not Themselves because they’re hungry. Hahahahaha women, don’t you get it? EVERYBODY hates you. Everybody has contempt for you. Everybody thinks your pathetic aspirations to be treated like human beings are a huge joke.
The twist ending is a genuine “fuck you” to the actual women who happened to walk by and become a part of the commercial. I wonder, when the producers approached them to get their permission to be used on film, did they tell them how the commercial would end? I suspect not. And, if not, I bet seeing the commercial would feel like a betrayal. These women were (likely) given the impression that it was about respecting women, but instead it was about making fun of the idea that women deserve respect.
What a dick move, Snickers. I hope you’re happy with your misogynist consumer base, because I don’t think I can ever buy a Snickers bar again. What else does your parent company sell? I’ll make a note.
Have the ad.
Fuck the Mars Candy Company for renaming the Mars bar the Snickers with Almonds. They don’t respect themselves, of course they don’t respect others.
gods
Did they run that by a test-audience before boadcasting it?
That’s so full of shit. Way to mock all of us who have suffered street harassment for shits and giggles, Mars.
I had a sad, at first, because I thought Snickers was my favourite chocolate bar. Then I remembered that I discovered some time ago that my local supermarket’s own-brand version is actually better, and I’ve been getting that ever since. So I don’t have to give anything up, after all!
What else would one expect from a company that ran a homophobic ad during the Superb Owl?
http://adage.com/article/news/mars-pulls-u-k-snickers-ad-criticized-homophobic/129892/
They could have been awesome, and they could have spun that the other way: with the pre-Snickers misogyny, and Friend letting Friend know “you’re losing your progressive edge” and handing him a Snickers, and making things alright in the world once again. That would have been awesome.
Pity. I liked snickerbars.
Does anyone get the feeling that old rich white men get a vicarious thrill by financing idealized versions of themselves (young pretty white guys), while we get cringe-worthy media and useless apps focused on meeting the needs of young white guys?
Just sayin’, because it seems to me that if we relied on the talents of everyone (instead of just listening to the voices of privilege) maybe we’d suffer less crap like this.
Or maybe only young white guys buy Mountain Dew and Snickers?
Such a fine line between stupid and clever.
@ 8 – or at least young brawny macho kind of hip guys. Yes, I do. I think that’s always a thing for middle class men: the lure of the salt of the earth workin’ stiff.
I mean shit, that was W Bush’s whole career.
LOL – that was hilarious!! Women are such stupid cows!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! And it makes no difference what country you’re in – a cow’s a cow! MOOOOOOOOOOO!!! O the hilarity O_O
They’ve been pulling this macho sexist bullshit with their ads for a while now. The Mr. T “Get Some Nuts” commercials a few years back for instance. “Speedwalking? You’re a disgrace to the man race!”
Gag.
The construction workers are hungry, so they’re out of their minds.
The exact opposite of Dan White’s “Twinkie Defense”. I hope someone uses “Snickers Deficiency” as a court defense soon – somebody guilty of some crime involving decades of incarceration.
Haven’t seen this one.
It starts well and works up til the awful let down of the ending. They could’ve made it so much better if they’d had the choccy bars first and it was that that finally made the construction workers see sense. Sigh.
The purpose of advertisements is to sell product, and they are targeted to a target demographic — as the quotation in the OP goes, “I hope you’re happy with your misogynist consumer base, because I don’t think I can ever buy a Snickers bar again.”
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StevoR:
Awesome? Better? Those are relative.
As with any goal-directed action, “better” refers to that which best achieves that goal.
So if I understand this ad correctly. If you desire to loose your respect for women, eating a snickers is the way to go. Otherwise you better don’t touch the stuff.
Axxyaan @16, leaving aside your unfortunate typographical malapropism, not really IMO.
For me, the ad is a not-quite-subliminal appeal to the stereotype of a real bloke, and builds on the product’s earlier marketing slogan “Snickers Satisfies”.
(You may have noticed how beer commercials do much the same thing)
In all the other Snickers’ commercials, the obnoxious behavior is displayed before the person(s) eat the bar, and the bar is the cure for it.
There’s a petition to Snickers regarding this:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/100/594/431/
Ironically, this site’s design itself perpetuates the gender binary. You’d think such progressive people would have more of a clue. Please consider signing another petition asking them to fix this:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/994/777/479/