This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign, and in celebration of the milestone and the brand’s 90th anniversary, Snickers’ 2020 Super Bowl commercial features a giant hoard of people feeding a Snickers to someone who needs it the most: the world. As in, the actual planet. Through a giant hole. Because let’s be honest, the world is definitely not itself these days, and what better way to fix it than by feeding it a Snickers?
The 30-second spot takes viewers through several different scenarios that can be considered not great for some people, but are actually more common than ever. It opens with a woman complaining about grown men riding scooters (LOL but actually, what an invention), then pans to a younger girl complaining about everyone texting dirty pictures. You see her mom in the background posing provocatively in front of a steamy bathroom mirror, so like, fair. Then a nurse hands a newborn baby to its parents, which is cute until you find out the baby’s name is Kale. (Hey, there's no shame in naming your baby anything you want, even if it is named after produce! Just maybe consider staying away from something like Eggplant or Potato. A suggestion!)
Finally, a man sits at his dining table and remarks that the “surveillance state's got brand new tricks,” in reference to suspicions that the government uses home virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa to spy on private citizens. It feels a little all over the place until you see everyone come together around a giant hole in the ground, along with thousands of other people singing, “The world is out of sorts, we need to fix it quicker. We have a dumb idea (so dumb), we’re gonna feed it Snickers.” Above them, a giant cargo plane drops a massive Snickers bar into the hole. Because the world just hasn’t been the same lately, so naturally, it must be hungry. The final five seconds show two influencers talking to an iPhone literally falling into the hole, and actor Luis Guzmán proclaiming, “The Snickers hole! It’s working!” Ouch.
The unaired, full-length version of the spot features all these pain-points and more, including autocorrect’s weird suggestions, the re-invention of milk (so many new options!), and of course, a jab at the tumultuous political climate. The thousands of people around the Snickers hole sing they know it’s a “dumb thing to do,” but, “if it works, we all win.” Honestly? True. Maybe feeding the world a Snickers isn’t that bad of an idea. Someone start digging.
