Frank and Ethel Mars founded their chocolate company, Mars, in 1911, and had their first success with the Milky Way bar.
Still going strong in 1930, they launched Snickers. At the time, Mr. and Mrs. Mars were keen on horse racing — so much so that they’d bought up a large estate, which they named Milky Way Farm, so they could build their own race course. And when coming up with the name for their new candy creation, they decided to commemorate Ethel’s favorite racehorse, Snickers, who had recently passed away.
The main difference between Snickers and Milky Way bars was of course the peanuts. And it has always been sold as a satisfying bar, with its mix of nutty crunch and chewy nougat.
Frank Mars died in 1934, and Ethel five years later. But the company, and their chocolate bars, lived on. Since then, the confection has grown in popularity, and by 2013, the brand had passed $1 billion in annual sales. As of 2025, Snickers was the world’s best-selling chocolate bar.
‘You’re not you’ — a marketing comeback
Central to Snickers’ marketing has always been the idea of a snack that’s more satisfying than the average candy.
This has generally worked well. About 15 years ago, however, the marketing lost its way. The brand’s 2007 Super Bowl campaign about being “manly”’” was accused of promoting stereotypes by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). There were other attempts at promoting the masculine side of the bar. Unfortunately, this approach just didn’t work, and is in part blamed for a 10% loss in market share between 2006 and 2009.
By 2010, it was time for a reset. The first task for the team at BBDO — the agency appointed to the refresh — was to get to the heart of what makes Snickers so special. They conducted their own research, and this underlined the fact that Snickers, more than any other candy, really does fight hunger. Coupling this with the idea that our personalities genuinely change when we’re hungry — we become sluggish, irritable, and unable to focus — the team came up with a new tagline, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
The new campaign launched during the 2010 Super Bowl and featured beloved Golden Girls actress Betty White, then 89, and Abe Vigoda — who played Salvatore Tessio in The Godfather and was 88 at the time. The aging stars assume the roles of football players who are just too hungry to keep up with the game. But after a bite of Snickers, Betty transforms back to an athlete and is able to get on with the game. The premise being that when you’re hungry, you’re just not your normal self. The ad closes with the strapline, “You’re not you when you’re hungry. Snickers Satisfies.”
The ads were an immediate hit — the brand had struck marketing gold. In its first full year, the campaign helped to increase global sales of Snickers by 15.9% and grew market share in 56 of the 58 markets in which it ran — not bad for an 80-year-old, billion-dollar brand.
The “You’re not you” campaign has won almost every industry accolade, including awards at Cannes, the Effies and the One Show.
Why has the campaign been so successful? Behavioral science can offer some clues.
A recognizable trigger
There’s a well-known phenomenon in the field of psychology called the intention-to-action gap. That is, we often fail to take action despite our intention to do so. A prime example is the common experience of wanting to exercise, but not actually completing a workout. It suggests that motivation alone is often not enough to provoke a behavior.
One way to bridge the intention-to-action gap is to associate a behavior with a clear time, place or mood.
Why is this relevant to Snickers?
The “You’re not you” campaign effectively builds a trigger moment — hunger — and connects it to a solution — Snickers. The ads remind us that any time we feel “hangry”, that’s the moment to reach for a Snickers bar. They encourage us to use hunger as a catalyst to convert a vague notion into action.
There are other, less subjective ways to create trigger moments. An example is one used by KitKat chocolate bars in the UK —“Have a break, have a KitKat,” i.e., when it’s time for your mid-morning coffee break, it’s time for a KitKat. Diet Coke did something similar in the 1990s with their “Diet Coke Break”campaign, featuring muscled workmen taking shirtless morning breaks at 11:30 a.m. every working day.
So the why behind our love of Snickers? It’s all tied to timing.
Adapted Excerpt from HACKING THE HUMAN MIND: The behavioral science secrets behind 17 of the world’s best brands by Richard Shotton and Michael Aaron Flicker, published by Harriman House, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, on September 30, 2025. Copyright © 2025 by Richard Shotton and Michael Aaron Flicker.
