Sometimes the best approach is the most straightforward, and an iconic American candy is retooling their message to hammer home the basics as directly as possible: The main selling point of Twizzlers’ new campaign is that they are food.
We’ve gotta admit, “Twizzlers Are Food” does have a certain ring to it.
Starting this week, billboards, buses, and televisions around the country will be lit up with Twizzlers’ new “Twizzlers Are Food” slogan in a multimillion-dollar ad blitz intended to educate consumers that Twizzlers are a thing you can eat that have a flavor and, if chewed and swallowed, will be processed by your digestive system in a manner consistent with food. The campaign is a marked departure from Twizzlers’ previous “The Twist You Can’t Resist” tagline, which marketers worried was too cerebral and didn’t emphasize Twizzlers food status enough to establish a subconscious link between “Twizzlers” and “food” in buyers’ minds. Twizzlers spends big money to make sure their product is a sort of food that contains calories and is broadly free of hazardous objects and inedible chemicals, so why wouldn’t they want an ad campaign that highlights how Twizzlers are food?
“Right now when someone says ‘food,’ you probably think of an apple or a loaf of bread. Perhaps even a sumptuous roast turkey. But soon you’re gonna start thinking ‘Twizzlers!’ because as we say, ‘Twizzlers Are Food,’” said the company in a press release, adding that Twizzlers are a kind of candy, and candy is a kind of food, which according to the transitive property means that Twizzlers are inarguably food. “You can eat just a couple Twizzlers as a snack, or you can eat a whole bag of Twizzlers as a meal—the true beauty of food is that there are so many ways you can eat it. When people don’t eat food they die, but eating Twizzlers can keep you alive, because Twizzlers Are Food, and that’s a Twizzlers promise.”
It’s hard to argue with a pitch like that!
The ad campaign features endorsements from public figures like Selena Gomez, Kristen Bell, and DJ Khaled, all taking a big bite of Twizzlers and staring directly into the camera to announce that what you just saw was eating due to Twizzlers being food. And if you’re worried that nonstandard Twizzlers such as Chocolate Twizzlers and Twizzlers Filled Bites might not be food, you can breathe easy, because the extra long 90-second TV spots explain that being food is an intrinsic and immutable characteristic of all Twizzlers products that cannot be negated by variations in flavor or form. However, the ads also include the important disclaimer that even though you can bite the ends off of a Twizzler and use it as a straw to drink liquids like soda and milk, Twizzlers themselves are not liquids and therefore one should not attempt to drink them from a cup.
It’s gonna be hard for Twizzlers’ competitors to dispute their reasoning here. Kudos to Twizzlers for selling their product with a level of forthrightness rarely seen in advertising today!
