Snickers Commercial Diva

Many people watch the Snickers Diva commercial and think its funny, but people may not understand the true ideology behind the commercial. The commercial has a purpose behind it. It targets all men when it states, “You’re not you when you’re hungry. ” It sends a message to men telling them that in order to be a man, they must satisfy their large appetites. To do that, they should eat a snickers, a man’s food. In Susan Bordo’s article, “Hunger as Ideology” she talks about how society views the appetite of males and females.

Women can only be seen as beautiful if they are thin.She refers to a dialogue between two young girls saying, “Your mother, she is so slim, so beautiful! Does she eat? ” The daughter replies: “Silly, just not so much” (pg99). Bordo explains how society expects women to have very small appetites. There are numerous ads in the media that tell young girls and women that they must be on diets.

What they look like doesn’t matter as much as their body image. As long as a woman is skinny she is accepted by society. One of the main reasons women strive to stay slim is because, “men are likely to view long, slim legs, a flat stomach, and a firm rear end as essentials of female beauty” (pg102). In commercials that feature male eaters, the men are shown in a state of wild, sensual transport over heavily frosted, rich, gooey desserts. Their total lack of control is portrayed as appropriate even adorable” (pg111).

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In comparison to women, compulsive eating is known to be natural for a man. Men are “supposed” to have large appetites. The snickers diva commercial starts out with three men and one woman in a car going for a long drive. The woman sitting in the backseat, Aretha Franklin starts complaining and acting like a diva. She complains that it’s very hot in the car.The audience legitimately believes that it is of course Aretha Franklin, until the friend next to him says, “Jeff, eat a snickers, please. Every time you get hungry, you turn into a diva, so just eat it so we can all co-exist. ” Aretha mocks him unbelievingly until she takes a bite of the snickers. The camera turns away from Aretha and shows a quick shot of the rest of the men in the car. When the camera goes back to the diva, she is no longer there, but instead a relaxed man wearing the same colored shirt. After eating the snickers his friend offered him, he was back to his ld self, since his hunger is now satisfied. Hence, snickers satisfies. After he is satisfied, the man in the passenger seat gets hungry and becomes a diva also, shown as Liza Minnelli. In Susan Bordo’s article, “Hunger as Ideology”, she states, “The use of a male figure is one strategy for representing compulsive eating as natural and even lovable. Men are supposed to have hearty, even voracious, appetites. It is a mark of the manly to eat spontaneously and expansively” (pg. 108). This quote relates to the snickers commercial because it shows that Jeff is so hungry, that he is not himself anymore, he’s a diva.Jeff has an acceptable, large appetite that all men are said to have by our society. His character depicts an image to all men, letting them know it is okay for them to have a large appetite, and in order to satisfy their hunger, they should eat a snickers. It shows that when a man is hungry, he is not a real man anymore. In order to be a man he must eat a lot. In the commercial, the scene that reveals that the complaining diva is actually just Jeff when he is hungry, says that men must keep their manly appeal. They have to fit into the stereotype that society has created.It is not acceptable for a man to act like a diva, as in complain about everything. Based on this commercial, all men act like divas when they are hungry. Therefore, men should always keep their hunger satisfied even if it means to eat spontaneously. Men are not required to eat at the kitchen table at home; they eat anywhere, even in the car like the commercial shows. Along with the message to keep your manly appeal this commercial also depicts a second message. The second message targets the audience’s fear of aging and personality changes.Society today is terrified of the idea of aging with an inability to compete with the younger generations. Society is most interested in the young and the beautiful, and this doesn’t only target women, it targets men also like in this commercial. Going hand-in-hand with the fears of aging is the fear of changing in a negative manner. Society wants to be young forever; the elderly are paid no attention. Snickers depicts the ideology of fear of age and changing by showing the dramatic change of Aretha Franklin to Jeff.This commercial shows that once the consumer eats a snickers, they will go back to their original person, which may be changing back to being young again, or even back to their happy place. Going back to their old happy place meaning, without the mood changes and irritability. Through the aging process in life, there comes a point when we’re too old to be cool. Aretha turning into Jeff showed Jeff as a more relaxed and content person, rather than Aretha being irritable and pretty much, annoying. With this effect one’s mind associates Snickers with stability, a world free from change.