Snickers’ Horseless Headsman Fails to Scare

CapturFiles-Oct-02-2012_11.46.50.jpg

We love the oddity of this BBDO New York-created work for Snickers. Pirouetting off the classic Headless Horseman motif made popular in the Legend of Sleepy Hallow, the agency created the Horseless Headsman. Voiced rather brilliantly by Ezra Buzzington, the Horseless Headsman stumbles upon a group of trick or treaters in an attempt to scare them.

Ever jaded, these kids just don’t get it. As much as our Horseless Headsman attempts to send a chill through the spine of these youngsters, it is to no avail. They ask, “How is that even scary?”

Feeling a bit worry for the scary dude who isn’t all that scary, the kids offer the Horseless Headsman a Snickers bar. And that’s when the brand’s tagline, You’re not you when you’re hungry” pays off. Our Horseless Headsman takes a bite and suddenly becomes a very scary Headless Horseman frightening the children off into the night.

The ad has the necessary oddity and originality to become something of a hit though you’d never know that from its pitiful YouTube view count. Time will tell we suppose.

YouTube video

Picture of Steve Hall

Steve Hall

RECENT ARTICLES

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

The cruelest thing anyone says to a person grieving their dog is that they can always get another one. Nobody says that to a parent who lost a child. The difference in response reveals exactly how the world ranks love — not by depth, but by species

The cruelest thing anyone says to a person grieving their dog is that they can always get another one. Nobody says that to a parent who lost a child. The difference in response reveals exactly how the world ranks love — not by depth, but by species

Global English Editing

Behavioral scientists found that people with genuinely strong mindsets don’t tell themselves to be positive – they’ve learned to observe their thoughts without identifying with them, a distinction most people never understand.

Behavioral scientists found that people with genuinely strong mindsets don’t tell themselves to be positive – they’ve learned to observe their thoughts without identifying with them, a distinction most people never understand.

Global English Editing

Psychology says people who feel more alive in a foreign country than in their own home aren’t rootless — they’re responding to the freedom of being unknown, which allows parts of their personality that have been suppressed by familiarity and expectation to finally surface

Psychology says people who feel more alive in a foreign country than in their own home aren’t rootless — they’re responding to the freedom of being unknown, which allows parts of their personality that have been suppressed by familiarity and expectation to finally surface

Global English Editing

The meanest thing you can say to a Boomer woman isn’t an insult — it’s “let me do that for you” spoken one time too many, because every offer of help is also an inventory of what she can no longer do and she’s keeping her own count and she doesn’t need yours

The meanest thing you can say to a Boomer woman isn’t an insult — it’s “let me do that for you” spoken one time too many, because every offer of help is also an inventory of what she can no longer do and she’s keeping her own count and she doesn’t need yours

Global English Editing

I spent years trying not to become my mother. It was my attachment patterns that finally showed me I already had

I spent years trying not to become my mother. It was my attachment patterns that finally showed me I already had

Global English Editing

I’m 38 and childless by choice, and I’m exhausted by people who tell me my dog isn’t my child — because what they’re really saying is that my love doesn’t count unless it’s aimed at a human

I’m 38 and childless by choice, and I’m exhausted by people who tell me my dog isn’t my child — because what they’re really saying is that my love doesn’t count unless it’s aimed at a human

Global English Editing