Bloggelicious

For a while now, I've been wanting to post something about Snickers. First of all, I love me a good Snickers bar. The colder the better. Since Halloween is almost here, I allow myself to indulge in the little baby Snickers more than I should.

Last summer, I think it was, I started noticing the new Snickers campaign where they used the distinctive Snickers font to advertise their Snickeriffic treat. It's so interesting that just the font, lettering and color of the word identifies the candy bar so clearly. Somebody did a good job with the original font design.

One blogger (Thomas Sherman) noted that Snickers really missed a web opportunity because they didn't link the words (through Google Ads) to the Snickers website. I don't see myself working in a commercial market like this (nonprofits or educational institutions for me) but it does seem like a missed opportunity to get people to buy things they probably don't need.

Some people have made a parody of the campaign, making up words like "fatassopolis," "nugatabetes," and "guterrific." One website was developed where you could make your own Snickers logo. Lest we forget that all this creativity is about the bottom line, the site closed because Snickers threatened to take legal action (more here).

I just think it's fascinating how these kinds of things take on a life of their own. Other people have been running with it, too. I thought this one was really funny:

Given my socialist and anti-commercial tendencies, I feel the parodies of ad campaigns are as creative and important as the campaigns themselves. Time not to take commercialism so seriously. As Leslie Cabarga says in her amazing book Logo Font and Lettering Bible (which I will accept as a gift from anyone who would like to give it to me), "...it helps to remember that no matter how fine, elegant or cool our design may be, it is usually being used to con people into buying mundane commodities, most of which lack quality and integrity, are unhealthful and bad for the environment, and in many cases, nobody really needs them, anyway." Now there's a Graphic Designer I'd like to have a Snickers with.