2010 Snickers Commercial Featuring Betty White
The 2010 Snickers commercial with Betty White is a smart and funny way to show a message, not just to sell a product, but an idea. The idea is that being hungry can change who you are. This ad uses jokes, a famous actors, and good timing to catch people’s attention.
This ad targets a wide audience, especially both young people and adults, sports fans, and people who enjoy humor. The idea it promotes is simple: when you're hungry, you're not yourself, you act like an older person who has no energy. The product becomes a quick solution to a problem many people can relate to.
One of the strongest points of this ad is pathos, which is about making an emotional connection through humor. The ad starts with a group of young men playing football, but one of them looks like the older actress Betty White. She moves slowly and gets tackled hard, which makes people laugh. This funny and unexpected moment helps the audience connect with the ad. It also shows how it feels when you are not yourself. One of the players even shouts you are playing like Betty White, which makes it even more emotional and funny at the same time.
The ad uses ethos by showing Betty White, who is a famous and respected actress. Her appearance makes the message stronger because people know and trust her. If even Betty White is used to show how hunger can change someone, it makes the idea feel more real. Since she is well known and likable, people are more likely to trust the ad and the brand. A similar strategy was used in other countries too. For example, in Turkey, a different version of the Snickers ad was made after the Betty White one, featuring two respected Turkish singers, Muazzez Abacı and Gönül Yazar. Instead of a football game, the Turkish ad shows someone struggling while moving items during a house move. The use of well known celebrities again helped build trust and made the message more relatable to the local audience.
The ad uses logos by showing a clear and simple cause and effect idea: when you're hungry, you act differently, like being older, slower, and not as energetic as usual. Eating a Snickers helps you return to normal. This is shown visually when Betty White’s character eats the Snickers bar and turns back into the young man. The before and after moment makes the message easy to understand. Snickers fixes the problem caused by hunger.
The ad also uses kairos by being shown during Super Bowl XLIV. The characters in the ad are playing football, so showing it during the most popular football event makes perfect sense. It feels natural and fun to watch. The ad is only 30 seconds long but quickly delivers its main idea and the famous slogan, you’re not you when you’re hungry. This perfect timing and short format help the message reach the right people in an effective way.
The ad combines emotional connection (pathos) through humor, trust in the brand (ethos) through well known celebrities, and a simple logic (logos) by showing a clear before and after transformation. It also uses good timing (kairos) by being released during Super Bowl XLIV and keeping the ad short to give the message quickly.
The Snickers “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” ad is a great example of using rhetorical strategy. By using pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos, it gives the message that hunger can change how we act, and Snickers can help us feel normal again. It’s funny, clear, and easy to remember.