Mars returned the Snickers brand to the Super Bowl in 2010 for the first time since the candy bar appeared in a controversial ad depicting two men kissing in 2007 (“Mechanics”). This time the results were better, with Betty White shown taking a hard tackle and coming back with attitude (“That’s not what your girlfriend said”).
Our ad reviewer found the physical humor a little familiar after Reebok’s "Terry Tate, Office Linebacker" (Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003), and Tim Tebow also appears to tackle his mother out of nowhere in the same game’s Focus on the Family spot. But most people seemed to think it worked for Snickers, which won USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter for Super Bowl XLIV.
BBDO had another spot in the same game make USA Today's top 10, its fiddling-beaver ad for Monster.
Snickers, BBDO and the "You're not you when you're hungry" theme would be back in the game in 2011 ("Logging"). They worked together much earlier on big-game ads including "Marv Levy" in 1996.
Director: Craig Gillespie, whose Super Bowl portfolio also includes Audi's "The Commander," CareerBuilder.com's "Casual Friday," Emerald Nuts and Pop Secret's "Awesomer," Ameriquest's "Friendly Skies" and "Doctor," and Cars.com's "Timothy Richman" and "David Abernathy. Production company: MJZ. Executive producers: Lisa Margulis, David Zander. Producer: Martha Davis.
BBDO chief creative officer: David Lubars. Creative director/art director: Gianfranco Arena. Creative director/copywriter: Peter Kain. Executive producer: Amy Wertheimer.
VFX: MassMarket. Executive producer: Justin Lane. Executive producer: Angela Bowen. VFX producer: Kyle Wright. 2D leads: Nick Tanner, Todd Sarsfield. 2D team: Adam Flynn, Mark French, Anu Nagaraj, Joanne Unger.
Audio: Sound Lounge. Mixer. Tom Jucarone. Editorial: MacKenzie Cutler. Editor: Ian MacKenzie.
BRAND: Snickers
YEAR: 2010
AGENCY: BBDO
SUPERBOWL: XLIV
QUARTER AIRED: Q1