Snickers

A replacement for the king size Snickers bar was launched in the UK in 2004, and designed to conform to the September 2004 Food and Drink Federation (FDF) "Manifesto for Food and Health". Part of the FDF manifesto was seven pledges of action to encourage the food and drink industry to be more health conscious.[8] Reducing portion size, clearer food labels, and reduction of the levels of fat, sugar, and salt were among the FDF pledges. Mars Incorporated pledged to phase out their king-size bars in 2005 and replace them with shareable bars. A Mars spokesman said: "Our king-size bars that come in one portion will be changed so they are shareable or can be consumed on more than one occasion. The name king-size will be phased out."[8]

These were eventually replaced by the 'Duo' - a double bar pack. Though this change to Duos reduced the weight from 3.5 to 3.29 ounces (99 to 93 g), the price remained the same. The packaging has step-by-step picture instructions of how to open a Duo into two bars, in four simple actions.[9] As Mars stated fulfillment of their promise, the Duo format was met with criticism by the National Obesity Forum and National Consumer Council.[10]

In December 2000, tens of thousands of Snickers and Mars Bars were removed from New South Wales store shelves due to a series of threatening letters which resulted in fears that the chocolate bars had been poisoned.[11] Mars received letters from an unidentified individual indicating that they planned to plant poisoned chocolate bars on store shelves.[11] The last letter sent included a Snickers bar contaminated with a substance which was later identified as rat poison.[11] The letters claimed that there were seven additional chocolate bars which had been tampered with and which were for sale to the public.[11] As a precautionary measure, Mars issued a massive recall.[11] Mars said that there had been no demand for money and complaints directed to an unidentified third party.[11]

In 1980, Snickers (and Marathon) ran ads which featured a variety of everyday people discussing why they like Snickers. The ads featured a jingle that said "It's so satisfying" and had the classic hand that would open and close showing a handful of peanuts converting to a Snickers bar. "Packed with peanuts, Snickers really satisfies" was shown in the commercials.

Mars paid $5 million to have Snickers and M&M's named the "official snack" of the 1984 Summer Olympics, outraging nutritionists.[22] Sports promotions in international games continued to be a prominent marketing tool for Mars, that would keep Snickers as an international brand while also selling local bars in some markets.[23]

Beginning in 1995, Snickers ran ads which featured someone making a self-inflicted mistake, with the voice-over saying "Not going anywhere for a while? Grab a Snickers!" The tag line at the end of each ad proclaimed, "Hungry? Why Wait?"

One such ad had a player for a fictional American football team showing off his new tattoo of the team's logo on his back to his teammates. He then shows it to his head coach who, after complimenting the tattoo, immediately tells him that he's been traded to Miami. The player then goes to have his old team's logo replaced with the new team's logo.

Some of the ads were done in conjunction with the National Football League, with whom Snickers had a sponsorship deal at the time. One ad featured a member of the grounds crew at Arrowhead Stadium painting the field for an upcoming Kansas City Chiefs game in hot, late-summer weather. After finishing one of the end zones, and visibly exhausted, one of the Chiefs players walks up to him and says the field looks great, "but who are the Chefs?", showing that despite all the hard work the painter accidentally omitted the "i" in Chiefs.[24] Another had Marv Levy in the Buffalo Bills locker room lecturing his team that "no one's going anywhere" until the Bills figure out how to actually win a Super Bowl.[25]

In 2007, Snickers launched a campaign which featured Henry VIII and a Viking among others who attend the "Snickers Feast". It consisted of various commercials of the gang and their adventures on the feast.

On February 4, 2007, during Super Bowl XLI, Snickers commercials aired. This resulted in complaints by gay and lesbian groups against the maker of the candy bar, Masterfoods USA of Hackettstown, New Jersey, a division of Mars, Incorporated. The commercial showed a pair of auto mechanics accidentally touching lips while sharing a Snickers bar. After quickly pulling away, one mechanic says, "I think we just accidentally kissed.", and another mechanic exclaims, "Quick! Do something manly!" and in three of the four versions, they do so mostly in the form of injury, including tearing out chest hair, striking each other with a very large pipe wrench, and drinking motor oil and windshield washer fluid. In the fourth version, however, a third mechanic shows up and asks "Is there room for three in this Love Boat?"

Complaints were lodged against Masterfoods that the ads were homophobic. Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese is quoted as saying

"This type of jeering from professional sports figures at the sight of two men kissing fuels the kind of anti-gay bullying that haunts countless gay and lesbian school children on playgrounds all across the country."[26]

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) president Neil Giuliano said "That Snickers, Mars and the NFL would promote and endorse this kind of prejudice is simply inexcusable." Masterfoods has since pulled the ads and the website.[26][27][28]

In 2006, Mr. T starred in a Snickers advertisement in the UK where he rides up in an army tank and shouts abuse at a football player who appears to be faking an injury, threatening to introduce him to his friend Pain. Another advertisement featured Mr. T launching bars at a swimmer who appeared to refuse to get in a swimming pool because of the cold temperature of the water. In 2008, a European Snickers commercial in which Mr. T uses a Jeep-mounted Minigun to fire Snickers bars at a speedwalker for being a "disgrace to the man race" was pulled after complaints from a US pressure group that the advertisement was homophobic.[29] These advertisements usually ended with Mr. T saying "Snickers: Get Some Nuts!"

In NASCAR racing, Snickers (and the rest of the Mars affiliated brands) sponsor Kyle Busch's #18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Prior to that the brand served as a primary sponsor for Ricky Rudd's #88 Robert Yates Racing Ford as well as an associate sponsor for the team's #38 car driven first by Elliott Sadler and then by David Gilliland, and an associate sponsor for the MB2 Motorsports #36 Pontiac driven by Derrike Cope, Ernie Irvan, Ken Schrader, and others. In 1990, Bobby Hillin drove for Stavola Brothers Racing in the #8 Snickers Buick, marking the candy's first appearance as a sponsor; it had since been driven by Rick Wilson and Dick Trickle.

Snickers was the Official Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup from 1990 until 1998 editions and the UEFA European Championship from 1996 until 2000.

In 2010, a new advertising campaign was launched, usually based around people turning into different people (usually celebrities) as a result of hunger (taking the new campaign's name "You're Not You When You're Hungry" quite literally). The tagline varied depending on the commercial's location or what variety the commercial is showing.

In 2010, Betty White and Abe Vigoda appeared in the first Snickers commercial in this campaign, playing American football. The commercial was ranked by ADBOWL as the best advertisement of the year. This commercial was also briefly spoofed in an episode of SportsNation on ESPN2 with Michelle Beadle playing the role instead of Betty White in 2011.[30] Later that year, Snickers commercials featured singers Aretha Franklin and Liza Minnelli, and comedians Richard Lewis and Roseanne Barr. A 2011 commercial featured actors Joe Pesci and Don Rickles.

In Latin America, the slogan was the same as in the UK version, except that men doing extreme sports turning into the Mexican singer Anahí as a result of hunger.[31] Brazilian versions of the ad featured actresses Betty Faria and Cláudia Raia.

In 2013, the late Robin Williams and Bobcat Goldthwait also appeared in a Snickers football commercial. In March 2014, a commercial featuring Godzilla was released to promote the 2014 Godzilla film. In the commercial, Godzilla is shown hanging out with humans on the beach, riding dirt bikes, and water skiing; he only begins rampaging once he's hungry. After being fed a Snickers bar, he resumes having fun with the humans.[32]

In February 2015, Snickers' Super Bowl XLIX commercial featured a parody of a scene from an episode of The Brady Bunch entitled "The Subject Was Noses." In the commercial, Carol and Mike try to calm down a very angry Machete (played by Danny Trejo). When the parents give Machete a Snickers bar, he reverts into Marcia before an irate Jan (played by Steve Buscemi) rants upstairs and walks away. In a second commercial set earlier, Marcia (as Machete) angrily brushes her hair while yelling through her door.[33][34][35]

In 2016, for Super Bowl 50, another Snickers commercial was made, featuring Willem Dafoe (as Marilyn Monroe) and Eugene Levy, where Willem Dafoe complains about filming the iconic "subway grate" scene in The Seven Year Itch. After being given a Snickers, he turns into Marilyn and goes ahead with the scene, with Levy operating the fan below, commenting that the scene won't make the movie's final cut, that nobody would want to see it.

In 2018, Brazil World Cup winner Ronaldo is seen celebrating a goal for Argentina. When he notices the confused faces around him, he eats a Snickers and returns to normal.[36]

The UK version of the campaign usually used British celebrities and, up until 2018, retained the slogan from the Mr. T. era. In the initial advertisement, Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham featured as locker room footballers who had turned into them due to being hungry. In 2014, Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean returned on television by appearing on several UK Snickers commercials and cinema spots, in place of a martial arts master who had turned into him as a result of hunger.[37] Later, in 2018, Elton John appeared in a new advertisement where he turns into the African American rapper Boogie after he eats a snickers. It is revealed that he had turned into him due to hunger (the slogan appeared on a turntable in this advertisement).

Snickers has been an official sponsor of WWE's WrestleMania events, including WrestleMania 2000, 22, 32, 33, 34, and 35, while its Cruncher variant sponsored WrestleMania X-Seven, XIX, XX and 21. Since then, Snickers has sponsored superstars such as Enzo Amore and Big Cass with their signature term, SAWFT, which is labelled at the back of the chocolate bar.

Since 2011, Snickers has been the official sponsor of Six Flags' annual Fright Fest event at its theme parks.