Ad Review (Print) - Snickers

Recently, an otherwise dormant print ad world was rejuvenated, thanks to a clever ad campaign by Snickers. The campaign effectuated rounds of feedback, arguments and counter-arguments, a much needed boost to the old school ad channel. The ad series was published in a sports illustrated swim suit edition.

The campaign, through its series of ads  depicted professionals messing up at their work due to hunger and its effects. The hunger snack bar segment has been a space strongly held by Snickers and this series only reinforces that positioning, quite convincingly.

In one such ad, an intentionally flawed photo-shopped picture, showing a swimsuit model is shown with a strange  hand on her shoulder with no sign of the body of the person. The funny double twinkles in the model's eyes (which may not be as obviously visible as the hand, unless the picture is zoomed in) and a disaster 'navel' placement, clearly forms a visual message of blunders at retouching work, while the ad copy closes the ad with a witty message solving the puzzle about the blunder.

These visual mistakes immediately attract the viewer's attention and the textual message in the ad copy closes the story by squarely blaming the editing professional's hunger behind this editing disaster. Hence, the message is delivered home convincingly cleverly riding on humour without missing the objective of the ad.

This campaign is a clutter breaking effort, especially making a mark in print ad channel, which some critics are dubbing as a dead space.

Snickers blasts in itself strongly in the hunger killing candy bar segment with this ad, also going a step beyond from depicting irritated people due to hunger to dire consequences of hunger, especially at work. The ad packs punch in humour as well as relevance for the brand in terms of messaging and connect and is a 'hit'.