BBDO New York continues its run of great work for Snickers with this irresistible out-of-home campaign, in which the candy brand found goofy mistakes all around New York City—and put stickers next to them that read, "You make mistakes when you're hungry."
The fails are curious and amusing in their own right, of course, which is what makes this idea work so well. Adding a little snarky sticker caps them off perfectly. It helps that Snickers has had affection for people's mistakes for a long, long time.
The agency tells us the creatives scouted for mistakes throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn over the past few weeks and selected the most absurd ones for the campaign. For instance, the flipped tiles in the subway were found on at a 4-train stop. The door sign (Enter, Do Not Enter) was found in the entrance of a building in Williamsburg. The "7st floor" sign was in a commercial building in Midtown.
The campaign extended to social media, as the brand encouraged fans to share any #hungrymistakes they found or had made themselves.
UPDATE: Some readers have suggested that, as clever as this campaign is, it could be illegal. Animal New York contacted the MTA on Thursday, and a spokesperson there said: "Creative campaign, but it's vandalism."
BBDO told AdFreak that the stickers were only up long enough to photograph and were then removed. The agency says: "These were easy-to-peel-off stickers that were only up for a short period of time in order to capture the images included with real people in front of real mistakes. The branded stickers were taken down shortly after."
More images plus credits below. Click to enlarge:
CREDITS
Client: Snickers
Agency: BBDO New York
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO Worldwide: David Lubars
Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York: Greg Hahn
Executive Creative Director: Gianfranco Arena
Executive Creative Director: Peter Kain
Senior Art Director: Bianca Guimarães
Senior Art Director: Florian Marquardt
Senior Art Director: Fernando Mattei
Senior Copywriter: Rodrigo Linhares
Photographer: Billy Siegrist
Managing Director: Kirsten Flanik
Global Account Director: Susannah Keller
Account Director: Joshua Steinman
Account Manager: Dylan Green
Group Planning Director: Crystal Rix
Senior Planner: Alaina Crystal