Professor Nicolas Anderson

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Sample 2

Professor Nicolas Anderson

ENC 1101-U79

3 November 2016

When Hunger Strikes

“You’re Not You When You’re Hungry.” “Just Do It.” “Because You’re Worth It.”These are all popular slogans that are typically used to end off brilliantly crafted advertisements. Advertising, marketing, and selling products has been around since the time when human beings began to trade. Over time, as the markets have evolved, so have the world’s methods of displaying their products. Just by placing advertisements on posters, billboards or even blimps, significantly larger audiences can be reached. Nowadays, television and the internet are two of the largest facilitators in promoting and spreading advertisements and commercials for companies. Aside from what mediums are being used, there are a plethora of techniques that are being utilized by companies to make their ads the most memorable as possible. Within these various methods of creating their content, some advertisements use strategically eye catching colors, while others aim to create an impression by being in black and white. Some strive to be completely mesmerizing, while there are other advertisements or commercials that focus on one single key point of their product.

Regardless of the means and medium, the end goal is the same; appeal to the intended audience and convince them to purchase whatever product is being marketed.” The 2010 Snickers commercial featuring Betty White aimed to stimulate its sales through its use of compositional features and mirror and window effects. The commercial uses a change of character to show a mirror and window effect, certain compositional features add to promoting the product and the rhetorical appeals of the advertisement allow for the audience to connect better with how the product is being marketed.

To begin, the Snickers commercial captures a group of young men roughly playing football in what appears to be a neighborhood field. They are playing alongside Betty White, a 94 year old woman, who is used to portray their cranky hungry friend. The friend or Betty White is staggering along, attempting to keep up with the rest of the team butinevitably failing, eventually getting tackled to the ground. At this point, the team regroups and someone passes Betty White a Snickers chocolate bar. Once Betty White takes a bite of the bar, the friend is reverted back to his normal state and is able to resume playing in the game. The slogan “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” is shown at the end of the commercial. This is used to demonstrate how this Snickers commercial is using both mirror and window effect methods. The mirror effect can be seen as the commercial shows how cranky, sensitive and irritable a person can behave or comes off to others when they are hungry. However, once they have taken even a single bite out of a Snickers bar, they are shown to transform back into a normal energized person. With the setting of commercial being outside in the middle of a football game, it emphasizes that not only will the consumer be able to go back to their normal self once they take a bite of their Snickers Bar, but that they will also have enough energy to take part in an intense physical activity. The transformation the Betty White character goes through, both literal and metaphorical, aids the commercial in showing the window effect of the product.

Furthermore, the overall compositional features of the commercial add to how the product is aiming to be marketed. The coloring and lighting of both the setting and also the characters’ outfits are important elements of the commercial. The advertisement appears to be set at a park on an early morning; the weather seems to be a bit chilly as the men are dressed in warmer clothes such as sweat pants and jackets. There is glimpse of the sun in the background, however, because of the coloring and lighting of the commercial the setting still appears to look dull, not only that but all the actors in the commercial are wearing dull colored clothing. These monotonous colors are used to both contrast what the main character, Betty White, is wearing and to dull out the energy levels and intensity of the commercial. As the main focus is the character that Betty White is playing, her clothing contrasts with the rest of the group, she is wearing a pale blue outfit, and it is effective in making her stand out more from the rest of the group. However, the pale blue grandma-like track suit that she is wearing still contributes to the dull feeling that is being produced by the advertisement. There is only a contrast when the Snickers Bar makes its appearance in the commercial, while it may be small in comparison to everything else; it is the only piece of the commercial that is bright and vibrant in color. This makes the Snickers Bar to become the dominant figure in the commercial and also adds to how the chocolate bar is being advertised, as the perfect energizing treat.

Finally, there is an underhand use of rhetorical appeal that allows for the audience to have a better connection with the commercial. This commercial employs the use of pathos. This is cleverly done because of the nature of the situation. It is very unlikely for one to not have gone through something similar as is occurring in the commercial. It does not necessarily have to be the exact same situation but chances that any individual had either been in the position of the Betty White character or of the group of friends having to deal with their cranky friend is extremely high. There are times when we are so hungry we do not act how we normally would and there are other occasions when we are around individuals who are acting completely out of character because they are in need of food. Feelings of empathy or sympathy are certainlyinvoked from this commercial as it can make the audience think back to their own experiences of these particular situations.

To conclude, the 2010 Betty White Snickers commercial focused on capturing their audience’s attention by using contrasting elements in their advertisement.Through their use of contrast the advertisement is able to achieve both a mirror and window effect. By using the elderly female charactersuch as Betty White, the commercial can give a better representation ofhow someone who lacks the energy to keep up is viewed by others. The transformation of Betty White into the normal energized man shows the transition from the mirror to window effect that the Snickers commercial is aiming at showing. The compositional features such as the lighting and focus demonstrate great contrast which helps to draw attention to the particular elements of the commercial, such as the Snickers bar. Finally, because the commercial is presented in such a relatable manner which invokes pathos, the audience cannot help but sympathize with the situation, which increases the stimulation of sale of the Snickers chocolate bars.

Work Cited

2010SuperBowlXLIV. "[HD] Exclusive Snickers Super Bowl XLIV 44 2010 Commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda Ad."YouTube. YouTube, 07 Feb. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.