Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Snickers "Speedwalker"



Snickers commercials have always appealed to me.

The commercial begins with the shot of a man speed walking in bright yellow short-shorts down a suburban sidewalk. The speed-walker is shown in a few different angles walking funny and looking non-masculine. The next angle is the speed-walker checking his wrist monitor, when a huge truck comes flying through a neighbor’s house with Mr.T in the back of it. Mr.T is in the back of the pickup truck with a huge gun that shoots Snickers candy bars. The truck swerves through the neighbor’s lawn and onto the street towards the man walking. Mr.T yells at the man walking “Speed walking?! I Pity You Fool!” as the man just keeps on walking. Mr.T yells “You a disgrace to the man race! Time to run like a real man!" as begins to shoot Snickers at him. The walker gets hit and jumps around a few times before he picks up his pace and starts running. The commercial comes to an end with Mr.T and the truck cutting through another person’s lawn, while yelling the tagline “Snickers – Get Some Nuts!”
The commercial is obviously targeting males. The characters are the speedwalker and Mr.T, the two opposites in terms of stereotypical males. The speedwalker is meant to look like less of a man than Mr.T and Snickers. The entire theme is manliness. Mr.T represents the pinnacle of all manliness in this commercial with chest hair and a huge gun. If you don’t eat Snickers then you are not a true man.

1 comment:

Tony said...

Very interesting piece here, I've seen many of the newer snicker commercials, but i dont recall this one. It is a great play on words with the slogan of get some nuts, I enjoy snickers so does that make me more of a man? its very interesting how advertisers can make anything to make you feel stronger or better or more manly in this example even with a candy bar, I mean i though girls loved chocolate maybe that is th case but snicker has nuts so girls cant have those, is that what its saying? well short response to the commercial but good disection of the ad!