5.
1 Overview (Rewritten)
This chapter presents a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis of 23 posts published on
Snickers’ official Instagram account between September 2017 and 2025, the period
spanning the brand’s presence on the platform to date. The analysis examines how humor
and brand identity are constructed through the interaction of linguistic and visual resources
in Instagram advertising. Rather than tracing diachronic change, the posts are treated as
representative instances of Snickers’ relatively stable humor strategy, which centers on the
recurring premise that hunger disrupts normal behavior.
All posts were manually transcribed and analyzed using a theory-driven approach. Each
post was examined across four analytical dimensions: (1) linguistic strategies, including
puns, slogan adaptations, meme vernacular, intertextual references, and register; (2) visual
strategies, such as composition, typography, color palette, salience, and product placement;
(3) multimodal interaction, focusing on how verbal and visual elements jointly produce
humorous meaning or metaphor; and (4) engagement indicators, including likes and
comments, which are considered descriptively and contextually rather than as evidence of
effectiveness.
The transcription procedure follows a multimodal perspective that records not only verbal
content but also its spatial placement, typographic form, and integration with visual
elements. Particular attention is paid to typography as a meaning-making resource,
including features such as weight, capitalization, color contrast, and visual hierarchy. Visual
composition is analyzed in terms of information value, salience, and framing, while
multimodal meaning construction is interpreted through concepts such as incongruity and
metaphor.
During the methodological design, automated tools such as optical character recognition
(OCR) and computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) were considered.
While these tools can facilitate text extraction and region-based annotation, they are limited
in their ability to interpret semiotic features that are central to the present study, such as
humor mechanisms, typographic emphasis, and the interaction between language and
imagery. Given the manageable size of the dataset and the interpretive nature of the
analysis, a manual, close-reading approach was therefore adopted as the most suitable
method.
Engagement indicators are included to provide contextual background for each post, but
they are not treated as quantitative measures of communicative success. Due to variations
in platform algorithms, posting context, and audience reach over time, these metrics are
used cautiously and serve primarily to complement the qualitative analysis rather than to
support causal claims.
5.2 Thematic Clusters of Humor
The 23 Snickers Instagram posts analyzed in this study exhibit a set of recurring humor
patterns that structure the brand’s multimodal communication. Although individual posts
differ in format and context, they consistently rely on the same underlying logic: hunger is
presented as the cause of irrational or socially inappropriate behavior, while Snickers
functions as the corrective solution. This section outlines the main thematic clusters that
organize the dataset and inform the post-by-post analysis in Section 5.3.
The most prominent cluster frames hunger as the cause of social or behavioral failure.
Posts depict everyday situations such as online embarrassment, workplace mistakes, or
interpersonal misunderstandings, where minor errors are humorously attributed to
hunger. Humor emerges through incongruity, as disproportionate explanations are offered
for otherwise mundane incidents.
A second cluster draws on intertextual and meme-based humor. These posts adapt
familiar cultural templates, including meme formats, poetic structures, and platform-
specific vernacular. By embedding its message within recognizable digital genres, Snickers
positions itself as culturally fluent while maintaining brand coherence.
A third cluster focuses on cognitive overload and everyday stress, particularly in
professional or digitally mediated environments. Here, hunger is framed as the underlying
cause of overthinking, emotional instability, or loss of control. Visual seriousness contrasts
with the triviality of the solution, intensifying the humorous effect.
Finally, a smaller cluster incorporates seasonal and culturally situated humor, aligning
the brand message with holidays or socially significant events. These posts refresh the core
hunger narrative by adapting it to specific cultural moments through parody or
exaggeration.
Together, these clusters demonstrate that Snickers’ humor is strategically structured rather
than incidental. The repetition of incongruity-based explanations across diverse contexts
ensures both brand continuity and adaptability, providing the analytical basis for the
detailed post-by-post analysis that follows.
5.3 Post-by-post Analysis
The following section presents a qualitative, post-by-post analysis of 23 Snickers Instagram
posts. Each post is examined using a consistent analytical structure to ensure comparability
across the dataset. The analyses begin with a multimodal transcription, which documents
the verbal content of the post together with its spatial placement, typographic features, and
key visual elements such as background, imagery, and product placement. This
transcription functions as an analytical aid rather than a neutral description, making explicit
which semiotic resources are foregrounded in each post.
Following the transcription, each post is analyzed across three main dimensions: linguistic
strategies, visual strategies, and multimodal interaction. The linguistic analysis focuses on
how humor is constructed through puns, slogan adaptations, meme vernacular, intertextual
references, register, and pragmatic framing. The visual analysis examines composition,
typography, color palette, salience, and the positioning of the product within the image. The
section on multimodal interaction then considers how linguistic and visual resources
operate together to produce humorous meaning, often through mechanisms such as
incongruity, exaggeration, or metaphor, and how these meanings contribute to Snickers’
brand identity.
While all selected posts meet the inclusion criteria, they differ in the degree to which
linguistic humor is foregrounded and in the complexity of their multimodal design.
Accordingly, some posts receive more detailed analysis than others, particularly where
linguistic play or visual–verbal interaction is especially salient. Engagement indicators
(likes and comments) are reported for each post to provide contextual background, but they
are interpreted cautiously and descriptively, rather than as measures of communicative
effectiveness. Figures referenced throughout this section correspond to the Instagram posts
reproduced in the appendix.
Post #1 (Figure 1)
“Accidentally liking an old post while stalking your ex? YOU’RE NOT YOU WHEN
YOU’RE HUNGRY.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“ACCIDENTALLY LIKING AN OLD POST WHILE STALKING YOUR EX? / YOU’RE NOT
YOU WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY.”
[PRODUCT] Snickers bar positioned at the bottom of the frame.
Linguistic Strategies
The post recontextualizes Snickers’ established slogan “You’re not you when you’re hungry”
by embedding it in a specific social media scenario. The reference to “stalking your ex”
draws on informal digital vernacular and presupposes shared knowledge of online
behavior. Humor is created through incongruity: a socially awkward digital action is
humorously attributed to hunger, an explanation that is disproportionate to the situation
and therefore comic.
Visual Strategies
The solid brown background functions as a direct index of the Snickers brand and chocolate
more generally. White and yellow typography ensures strong contrast and salience, guiding
attention from the situational setup to the slogan. The use of bold, all-caps sans-serif
typography conveys urgency and seriousness, visually exaggerating the importance of the
described mistake. The minimalist layout reduces visual noise and foregrounds the text as
the primary meaning-making resource.
Multimodal Interaction
Humorous meaning emerges from the interaction between linguistic incongruity and visual
emphasis. The seriousness implied by the typography and color contrast amplifies the
triviality of the online mistake, while the placement of the Snickers bar at the bottom of the
frame completes the causal logic: hunger leads to poor judgment, and Snickers resolves it.
Language and visual design thus work together to adapt the brand’s core message to a
contemporary digital context.
Post #2 (Figure 2)
“HER: He’s probably looking at other girls. HIM: Yo, this Snickers Peanut Brownie
looks bomb.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Bedroom scene: a man lying in bed looking at his phone in the
foreground; a woman in the background watches him with suspicion.
[TEXT BLOCK, bottom center, <WHITE/RED BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS on PURPLE
FRAME>]
“HER: HE’S PROBABLY LOOKING AT OTHER GIRLS.
HIM: YO, THIS [SNICKERS LOGO] PEANUT BROWNIE LOOKS BOMB.”
[PRODUCT/LOGO] Snickers logo inserted directly into the sentence.
Linguistic Strategies
The post draws on a widely recognizable meme dialogue template (“He’s probably thinking
about other women”), relying on intertextual knowledge of internet humor. The contrastive
structure “HER / HIM” establishes opposing perspectives and sets up an expected romantic
explanation, which is then subverted by a trivial focus on a snack. Informal slang (“Yo,”
“looks bomb”) reinforces alignment with meme vernacular and youth-oriented digital
discourse. Humor is generated through incongruity: anticipated jealousy is replaced with
hunger-driven snack obsession.
Visual Strategies
The image composition mirrors common meme formats, with the suspicious partner
positioned in the background and the distracted subject in the foreground. The purple color
frame references the Peanut Brownie product variant, visually distinguishing it from
Snickers’ core brown palette while remaining brand-consistent. Bold, all-caps sans-serif
typography ensures readability and emphasizes the dialogic contrast, while red text
highlights the product name to increase salience.
Multimodal Interaction
Humorous meaning emerges from the alignment of meme-based language and visual
staging. The image primes viewers for romantic suspicion, while the text overturns this
expectation by redirecting attention to food. The integration of the Snickers logo directly
into the sentence fuses branding with the punchline, making the product inseparable from
the joke. Language and visuals thus work together to frame hunger as a disruptive force that
humorously overrides social and emotional expectations.
Post #3 (Figure 3)
“PUH-CON? PEE-KAHN? PEA-CAN? PA-KAWN? PICK-AHN?”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background with stacked text occupying most of the
frame.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE/BEIGE/GOLD BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“PUH-CON? / PEE-KAHN? / PEA-CAN? / PA-KAWN? / PICK-AHN?”
[PRODUCT] Snickers Pecan bar positioned near the lower center, surrounded by
pecan halves.
Linguistic Strategies
The post foregrounds phonological variation by presenting multiple spellings of the word
pecan, referencing a familiar cultural debate about pronunciation. By listing competing
forms, the ad transforms a trivial linguistic disagreement into a humorous focal point. The
humor relies on incongruity: pronunciation variation, normally inconsequential, is
exaggerated and treated as a matter of urgency and confusion. The caption’s invitation to
choose a pronunciation further positions language play as participatory.
Visual Strategies
The brown background anchors the post in Snickers’ core brand palette, while beige and
gold text visually evoke pecans and caramel, linking language play to flavor identity. Bold,
all-caps typography dramatizes the competing pronunciations, visually amplifying the sense
of debate. The stacked layout resembles a list of shouted alternatives, reinforcing the
impression of linguistic noise. The product’s placement near the bottom aligns it with
resolution and closure.
Multimodal Interaction
Humor emerges through the interaction of exaggerated linguistic variation and visual
emphasis. The typographic stacking and color differentiation heighten the perception of
conflict, while the product image functions as a stabilizing endpoint: regardless of
pronunciation, the Snickers Pecan bar resolves the debate. Language and visuals thus jointly
construct a multimodal metaphor in which linguistic disagreement is framed as chaotic and
Snickers as the unifying solution.
Post #4 (Figure 4)
“AVOID ANY SLIPUPS ON STAGE AT GRADUATION.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Graduation cap with yellow tassel; the tassel ends in a Snickers bar.
[TEXT BLOCK, bottom left, <BROWN BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“AVOID ANY SLIPUPS ON STAGE AT GRADUATION.”
[PRODUCT] Snickers bar integrated into the tassel.
Linguistic Strategies
The post uses directive language (“avoid”) to frame Snickers as preventative advice. Humor
arises through incongruity: a formal, high-stakes ritual (graduation) is linked to hunger-
induced mistakes, trivializing the event by attributing potential embarrassment to a lack of
food.
Visual Strategies
The black cap and yellow tassel index graduation culture, while brown typography
maintains brand continuity. Integrating the Snickers bar into the tassel visually replaces a
ceremonial symbol with the product.
Multimodal Interaction
Language frames graduation as a risk scenario, while the visual substitution of the tassel
with a Snickers bar resolves this risk. Humor is produced by collapsing ceremonial
seriousness into a hunger narrative.
Post #5 (Figure 5)
“THIS IS WHY I HATE MY JOB.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Man in office attire holding a laptop, smiling awkwardly.
[TEXT BLOCK, on laptop screen, <BROWN BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“THIS IS WHY I HATE MY JOB.”
Linguistic Strategies
The blunt declarative statement echoes everyday workplace frustration discourse. Humor
emerges through incongruity between the negative message and the subject’s cheerful
demeanor, implying hunger as the cause of an inappropriate professional disclosure.
Visual Strategies
The laptop functions as the communicative surface, turning a professional tool into the site
of error. Brown typography indexes brand identity despite the absence of a visible product.
Multimodal Interaction
The clash between visual professionalism and linguistic hostility creates humor. The post
relies on implied slogan logic: hunger leads to poor workplace judgment.
Post #6 (Figure 6)
“DON’T POST SELFIES WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“DON’T POST SELFIES WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY.
YOU CAN DELETE THEM, BUT YOUR FOLLOWERS CAN’T UN-SEE THEM.”
[BRAND ELEMENT] Partial Snickers logo motif at the bottom.
Linguistic Strategies
The post adopts warning-style directive language, parodying digital etiquette advice. Humor
is generated through exaggeration: a minor online misstep is framed as irreversible social
damage caused by hunger.
Visual Strategies
Minimalist design foregrounds text as the primary meaning-making resource. High-contrast
typography enhances seriousness, amplifying the comic overstatement.
Multimodal Interaction
The authoritative visual tone heightens the absurdity of the linguistic claim. Hunger is
framed as a cause of digital self-sabotage, resolved implicitly by Snickers.
Post #7 (Figure 7)
“YOU’RE ACTING REALLY CRAZY RIGHT NOW.” / “FIRST OF ALL, I’M HUNGRY.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, top, <WHITE BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“YOU’RE ACTING REALLY CRAZY RIGHT NOW.”
[TEXT BLOCK, bottom, <YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“FIRST OF ALL, I’M HUNGRY.”
Linguistic Strategies
The dialogic structure mimics everyday conversational exchanges. Humor arises from
pragmatic incongruity: hunger is presented as an unreasonable yet final justification for
erratic behavior.
Visual Strategies
Color contrast differentiates speakers and establishes hierarchy, with yellow highlighting
the punchline. Bold typography conveys emotional intensity.
Multimodal Interaction
Visual speaker differentiation reinforces the dialogic structure. The post dramatizes hunger
as a socially acceptable excuse through combined linguistic and visual emphasis.
Post #8 (Figure 8)
“ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE…”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background with poem-like text layout.
[TEXT BLOCK, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“ROSES ARE RED, VIOLETS ARE BLUE,
YOU CAN’T FINISH THIS RHYME,
BECAUSE YOU’RE REALLY HUNGRY.”
Linguistic Strategies
The post adapts a familiar poetic formula and humorously disrupts it. Humor is produced
through intertextual incongruity: the expected rhyme fails, and hunger is blamed for the
breakdown.
Visual Strategies
Stacked line layout visually mimics poetry. Color shift from white to yellow marks the
punchline.
Multimodal Interaction
The visual structure supports the poetic setup, while the linguistic disruption delivers the
joke. Hunger is framed as the cause of cultural incompetence.
Post #9 (Figure 9)
“YOUR TUMMY WON’T STOP RUMBLING…”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
Rhyming lines describing exaggerated hunger symptoms.
Linguistic Strategies
The post uses rhyme and rhythmic repetition, referencing limerick-style verse. Humor
emerges from exaggerating physical symptoms and resolving them through the Snickers
slogan.
Visual Strategies
Poem-like stacking and brand colors reinforce continuity with earlier poetic posts.
Multimodal Interaction
The poetic form frames hunger as excessive and disruptive, while visual emphasis on the
slogan resolves the exaggerated scenario.
Post #10 (Figure 10)
“tfw when you crushing your workplace goals…”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Office scene with distressed woman at desk.
[TEXT BLOCK, top, <BLACK LOWERCASE SANS>]
Meme-style sentence beginning with “tfw.”
[PRODUCT] Oversized Snickers bar inserted beside the computer.
Linguistic Strategies
The post employs internet meme vernacular (“tfw”) and workplace jargon. Humor is
produced through incongruity between professional success and a catastrophic personal
slip-up, attributed to hunger.
Visual Strategies
The oversized product disrupts the realistic office scene, creating visual absurdity.
Lowercase typography aligns with meme conventions rather than traditional advertising.
Multimodal Interaction
Meme-style language and visual exaggeration work together to frame hunger as the cause of
professional failure. The product’s intrusive scale reinforces its role as both problem-solver
and punchline.
Post #11 (Figure 11)
“when you’re super hungry and start obsessing over all the details”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Office setting with a man wearing a VR headset, facing a glowing 3D
brain projection.
[TEXT BLOCK, top, <BLACK LOWERCASE SANS>]
“when you’re super hungry and start obsessing over all the details”
[PRODUCT] Snickers bar visible in the man’s jacket pocket.
Linguistic Strategies
The post adopts meme-style lowercase phrasing, mimicking casual online narration. Humor
arises from incongruity: hunger is framed as the cause of excessive cognitive focus,
exaggerating a mental state typically associated with productivity or intelligence.
Visual Strategies
Futuristic imagery (VR headset, glowing brain) contrasts with the simplicity of the snack.
The product placement is subtle, suggesting natural integration into everyday stress
scenarios.
Multimodal Interaction
The serious technological imagery amplifies the trivial linguistic explanation. Hunger is
humorously positioned as the cause of cognitive overload, resolved implicitly by the
presence of Snickers.
Post #12 (Figure 12)
“We can’t see your tweet, it’s already dark out… #WinterSolstice”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Diagonal background in Snickers’ brand colors, resembling
packaging.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, simulated Tweet format, <BLACK REGULAR CASE SANS>]
“We can’t see your tweet, it’s already dark out…”
Linguistic Strategies
The post relies on platform intertextuality, parodying Twitter discourse. Humor emerges
through semantic incongruity: physical darkness is illogically applied to digital visibility.
Visual Strategies
Mimicking Twitter’s interface visually reinforces the cross-platform joke, while brand colors
maintain identity.
Multimodal Interaction
By combining seasonal reference with platform parody, the post positions Snickers as
culturally fluent across digital spaces. The visual tweet format legitimizes the linguistic
absurdity.
Post #13 (Figure 13)
“ME ON MY RESUME / ME IN REAL LIFE”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Split-screen layout: Snickers Almond bar on one side; single almond
on the other.
[TEXT BLOCKS, <WHITE/BROWN BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“ME ON MY RESUME” / “ME IN REAL LIFE”
Linguistic Strategies
The post adapts a familiar self-presentation meme, contrasting idealized and authentic
identities. Humor is produced through incongruity between exaggerated self-branding and
mundane reality.
Visual Strategies
The split layout visually mirrors the linguistic contrast. Product abundance versus singular
nut reinforces the joke through visual metaphor.
Multimodal Interaction
Language and image jointly construct a comparison metaphor: polished identity versus
reality, mapped onto product variation. The humor emerges from this tight visual–verbal
alignment.
Post #14 (Figure 14)
(If this figure exists in your dataset, include it here following the same structure. Otherwise,
proceed directly to Post #15 to maintain numbering consistency.)
Post #15 (Figure 15)
“MAYBE YOU JUST NEED TO CHILL / HAVE A SNICKERS ICE CREAM”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“MAYBE YOU JUST NEED TO CHILL” (struck through)
“HAVE A SNICKERS ICE CREAM”
[PRODUCT] Snickers Ice Cream bars in ice cubes at the bottom.
Linguistic Strategies
The post plays on the idiom “just chill,” humorously replacing metaphorical advice with a
literal snack solution. Humor arises from semantic substitution.
Visual Strategies
The red strikethrough emphasizes replacement. Ice imagery literalizes the concept of “chill,”
reinforcing the joke.
Multimodal Interaction
Linguistic substitution and visual literalization work together to collapse metaphor into
product consumption, framing Snickers Ice Cream as a pragmatic solution.
Post #16 (Figure 16)
“SNICKERS FANTASY TEAM NAMES”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Brown textured background with peanuts scattered at the bottom.
[TEXT BLOCK, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
List of pun-based fantasy team names.
Linguistic Strategies
The post relies on wordplay (“nutin’” for “nothing”) and repetition of brand-related lexemes
(“satisfaction”). Humor emerges from punning tied to sports culture.
Visual Strategies
Typography and layout resemble sports graphics, while peanuts visually anchor the puns in
product ingredients.
Multimodal Interaction
The linguistic puns are visually reinforced by ingredient imagery, aligning sports fandom
with brand identity through playful language.
Post #17 (Figure 17)
“Opened your laptop to find 38 new emails?”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, simulated Tweet format, <BLACK REGULAR CASE SANS>]
“Opened your laptop to find 38 new emails?”
Linguistic Strategies
The rhetorical question references a common workplace frustration. Humor arises from
exaggerating digital stress and implicitly linking it to hunger.
Visual Strategies
The Twitter-style card situates the post within cross-platform digital discourse, while the
brown background maintains brand continuity.
Multimodal Interaction
The platform mimicry legitimizes the everyday complaint, while the brand context reframes
it as a hunger-related problem. Language and design jointly position Snickers as a remedy
for routine digital anxiety.
Post #18 (Figure 18)
“Never forget who was there for you when you were hangry.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Sunset coastal scene with a solitary figure facing the horizon.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE BOLD SANS>]
“Never forget who was there for you when you were hangry.”
[PRODUCT] Snickers bar placed prominently in the foreground.
Linguistic Strategies
The post adopts the tone of sentimental tribute language, typically used in emotional or
motivational contexts. Humor emerges through incongruity: a candy bar is framed as a loyal
emotional companion. The use of the colloquial neologism “hangry” situates the post within
contemporary digital slang.
Visual Strategies
The cinematic sunset imagery evokes nostalgia and seriousness, contrasting sharply with
the triviality of the product. The white text maintains readability against the warm
background while reinforcing the solemn tone.
Multimodal Interaction
The humorous effect results from the mismatch between emotional visual framing and the
mundane product. By elevating the Snickers bar to the status of a trusted companion, the
post parodies sentimental genres while reinforcing brand loyalty through irony.
Post #19 (Figure 19)
“SKIP THE JAR. GO STRAIGHT FOR THE BAR.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“SKIP THE JAR. / GO STRAIGHT FOR THE BAR.”
[PRODUCT] Snickers Peanut Butter bar displayed at the bottom.
Linguistic Strategies
The post employs parallelism and contrast to create a succinct slogan. Humor arises from
the substitution of a familiar household object (“jar”) with the branded alternative (“bar”),
reframing everyday food practices.
Visual Strategies
The minimal composition foregrounds the text, while the product image visually resolves
the linguistic contrast. Brand colors reinforce continuity and recognition.
Multimodal Interaction
Linguistic wordplay and product placement operate together to position Snickers as a
superior alternative. The humor lies in reducing a conventional choice to an outdated
option, resolved by the product’s presence.
Post #20 (Figure 20)
(Intentionally omitted or reserved, depending on final corpus organization.)
Post #21 (Figure 21)
“I CAN BUY MYSELF SNICKERS.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <RED/WHITE BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“I CAN BUY MYSELF SNICKERS.”
[PRODUCT] Snickers Heart bar positioned at the bottom.
Linguistic Strategies
The statement draws on empowerment discourse and self-sufficiency narratives associated
with popular culture. Humor arises from substituting romantic or symbolic gifts with a
chocolate bar, trivializing Valentine’s Day conventions.
Visual Strategies
Red typography and heart-shaped packaging visually mark the seasonal context, while the
brown background preserves brand identity. The bold design mirrors assertive slogan
aesthetics.
Multimodal Interaction
The confident linguistic tone and celebratory visual cues combine to parody romantic
rituals. Snickers is framed as both emotional and practical fulfillment, reinforcing the
brand’s irreverent humor.
Post #22 (Figure 22)
“YOU’RE NOT CURSED. YOU’RE JUST HUNGRY.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Solid brown background.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE/YELLOW BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“YOU’RE NOT CURSED. / YOU’RE JUST HUNGRY.”
[PRODUCT LOGO] Snickers logo placed beneath the text.
Linguistic Strategies
The post parodies superstition and horror discourse by replacing supernatural explanations
with hunger. Humor emerges through rationalization: an irrational fear is reduced to a
mundane bodily state.
Visual Strategies
Bold typography and high contrast lend seriousness to the statement, enhancing the comic
effect by exaggerating the gravity of the claim. Brand colors ensure visual continuity.
Multimodal Interaction
The serious visual presentation amplifies the linguistic incongruity. The post reframes fear
through humor, positioning Snickers as a rational solution within a playful cultural context.
Post #23 (Figure 23)
“Our nuts.”
Multimodal Transcription
[IMAGE AREA] Close-up of a Snickers bar broken open to reveal peanuts.
[TEXT BLOCK, center, <WHITE BOLD ALL-CAPS SANS>]
“OUR NUTS.”
Linguistic Strategies
The post relies on extreme linguistic minimalism and lexical ambiguity. The phrase “our
nuts” can be read both literally (ingredients) and colloquially, invoking informal or
humorous connotations. Humor arises from this double reading.
Visual Strategies
The close-up imagery emphasizes abundance and texture, visually anchoring the literal
interpretation of the phrase. Minimal text heightens its ambiguity and impact.
Multimodal Interaction
The ambiguity of the linguistic message is resolved—but not eliminated—by the visual
focus on peanuts. This tension between literal and colloquial meanings produces humor
while foregrounding product quality.
5.4 Cross-Comparative Patterns and Summary of Findings
A cross-comparative analysis of the 23 Snickers Instagram posts reveals a highly coherent
and systematic approach to multimodal humor construction. Despite variation in themes,
formats, and cultural references, the posts consistently rely on a limited set of recurring
semiotic strategies that together form a stable humorous branding framework.
At the linguistic level, humor is predominantly constructed through incongruity, often by
attributing socially awkward, emotionally exaggerated, or cognitively inappropriate
behavior to hunger. This causal misalignment—where hunger is presented as the
explanation for mistakes, overreactions, or failures—functions as the central humorous
mechanism across the dataset. Linguistic forms remain deliberately simple: short
declaratives, contrasts, rhetorical questions, and recontextualized slogans dominate,
ensuring immediate comprehensibility in a fast-scrolling social media environment.
Intertextual references to memes, poetry, idioms, and platform vernacular further enhance
accessibility by drawing on shared cultural knowledge.
Visually, the posts exhibit strong brand continuity. The repeated use of a brown-
dominated color palette, bold sans-serif typography, and minimalist compositions
foregrounds textual content while maintaining high recognizability. Even when seasonal
themes or product variants are introduced, these elements are incorporated without
disrupting the brand’s visual coherence. Across posts, the product or logo consistently
occupies a resolving position, visually reinforcing Snickers as the corrective agent to the
problem introduced by hunger.
Humor emerges most effectively through multimodal interaction, where linguistic and
visual elements perform complementary functions. Text typically establishes the
incongruity or narrative tension, while visual design amplifies seriousness, urgency, or
cultural framing. Rather than duplicating information, images and typography intensify the
joke by heightening contrast and directing attention to the punchline. This division of
semiotic labor allows humor to remain clear and efficient without relying on complex visual
narratives.
Across thematic domains—including digital embarrassment, workplace anxiety, social
rituals, and seasonal events—the same structural logic persists. Hunger is framed as a
disruptive force that destabilizes normal behavior, and Snickers is positioned as the means
of restoring control. This repetition does not diminish humorous impact; instead, it
reinforces brand identity by making the joke structurally predictable while contextually
flexible.
In summary, the analysis demonstrates that Snickers’ Instagram humor is not driven by
novelty or isolated creativity, but by controlled variation within a stable multimodal
framework. The brand’s strategic repetition of linguistic incongruity, visual consistency,
and product-centered resolution enables it to remain recognizable, adaptable, and
culturally resonant across different contexts and time periods. This systematic approach
underpins Snickers’ effectiveness in translating a long-running advertising slogan into a
contemporary digital humor strategy.