Reading Response #3

Chandra Thompson
English 100 Section F
Reading Response #3


The advertisement I decided to analyze is a Snickers commercial with Betty White. The opening scene has a group of guys playing a game of football. One guy throws the ball at Betty White and she doesn’t catch the ball and gets tackled. The group of guys gets into a huddle and one guy says to Betty White, “Mike what is your deal, man?” She replies “Oh, come on man. You’ve been riding me all day.” He responds, “Mike, you’re playing like Betty White out there.” The girlfriend runs up to Betty White and gives her a snickers candy bar and Betty White turns into Mike, the guy. At the end, a different guy is shown as an old man.
The narrative being told in this advertisement is that football is a manly sport and sometimes when guys aren’t playing well they make fun of each other by saying they are playing like girls or old women as a joke and that with the help of a Snickers in this case the guy can get his game back by eating it. The cultural knowledge this ad requires is the knowledge of football and America. The myth is that women aren’t good at playing football in this advertisement.
In this particular ad, young and old are the oppositions shown. Young is more favorable than old and it’s shown by all the young guys playing with Betty White acting as a guy who is off his game and kind of playing like an old woman and another guy playing like an old man towards the end of the advertisement. The effects of using younger guys in this commercial are to get their advertisement across to young men and women. They also use a famous older woman such as Betty White to get their advertisement across to older people. The audio component of the video influences the myth by having nature sounds and not having any added music.
In conclusion, I feel like the advertisement is saying that no matter how old you are or maybe feel with the help of a snickers candy bar, may be able to make someone feel young again. The myth in this advertisement was that without this product some people may not be able to play the best they could or play like an old woman or old man.