My blog title is a
definition of the word snicker, which is also the name of a candy bar. In fact,
according to Wikipedia, Snickers is the best selling chocolate bar of all time.
Created in 1930, and named after a horse, it has annual global sales of US 2
billion. So they must be doing something right.
But not, I think, with their current ad campaign. It uses its iconic packaging as the basis for a silly series of ads, each with a weak, forced play on word replacing the word Snickers. Such as:
Now, it is more
than possible it is a generational thing, and their target demographics think
it is clever beyond imagining. And they do even have an interactive site for their audience, where you can type in a word and it
changes into what they call Snacklish. In fact, here is what “dumb campaign” turns
into:
Candy is a treat,
a small indulgence and just plain fun, and does not need a lot of intellectual
marketing arguments to get people to enjoy it. It just has to taste good. And
Snickers certainly fills that bill (have you tried them frozen? Exceptional).
I guess it just
comes down to personal taste, the same way you may (erroneously) prefer black
licorice, while I always choose red. But I simply believe that Mars has missed
a chance. If the purpose of this marketing is to gain further name recognition,
well, hey, they already obviously have that. Why not spend the massive budget
to expand their user franchise?
What do you think?
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