Snickers, "Betty White"

by Sheldina Henderson



The commercial portrays actress Betty White partaking in a game of football. Yes… Football! Now everyone knows that elderly women such as Betty White are not equipped with the physique and strength of a football player. This is not to say however, that they are incapable of playing it.

Basically the commercial is saying that due to hunger, the player was unable to perform as well as he normally would. Therefore, he was “playing like a girl”. There is no doubt that the commercial is indeed hilarious, but think about it, why does the player have to be compared to an old woman?

Most elderly women are weak, frail and unable to move around as much as men, especially young and fit athletes. The commercial intentionally (Yes intentionally!) downgrades women. The commercial is basically saying that women are basically useless when it comes to male dominating sports such as football. In fact football was actually intended for men to play! In an article entitled “Football…For the Girls” that was posted on http://yoursdaily.com, Jennifer Jordan stated, “The football obsession is only limited to the male species.”

Even the girlfriend of the “girl-like” player portrayed women in a certain sense that in a way shows the men’s superiority. The girlfriend, in a hurry, ran up to her boyfriend, whom she refers to as “honey”, and lets him take a bite of the snicker bar. At first glance, you probably found nothing wrong with this right? Well let’s just see about that

Why is it that the woman has to “run to her boyfriend’s rescue”? Why couldn’t he simply stop the game and go get a bite of snickers himself? He knew he needed snickers, because after the girlfriend gave it to him, he replied, “Much better”. So my point exactly, is why does he wait for his girlfriend to act the submissive role, and run out to the field? Also, why is it that the players start making fun of the way the other player was playing after he falls down? You mean to tell me they didn’t realize that his “A-Game” wasn’t on point until he fell? So basically women are not able to withstand such a “manly tackle”. Yeah right! I don’t know about you, but a tackle is light weight for me!

And of course, as any good sponsor, they would have to make it seem as if the commercial was not targeted at the strength of women by “throwing in” the old man. But, what some people fail to realize is that the commercial still focused solely on Betty White. Why couldn’t the old man be the main focus of the commercial? I know! Because according to them, whether old or young, boys are still better than girls…Well if you ask me…YEAH RIGHT!!