B&C Snacking

At B&C HQ, we love to explore other events – for ideas, talent, inspo and snacks. The latter of which has given me the inspiration for this month’s op-ed. 

🥨 🍿 🥗 

The cultural significance of snacking was alive and kicking this week at AdWeek Europe last week; a leitmotif across talks, activations and the show floors. I think I heard more people talking about the free Wendy’s sweet and salty “chips and ice cream” stand than Agentic AI. None the wiser to this crazy combination of hot salted fries dipped into thick vanilla frosty, I too was soon a convert. 

Maybe it was my unconscious telling me something or maybe I’m plain greedy but all of the sessions I was instinctively drawn to were on cultural relevance and snacking – and there was plenty to feast on – excuse my terrible puns. 

The cultural importance of snacking

Often unfairly conflated with gorging a whole packet of biscuits on the sofa (there’s a time and place for that), snacks are a conduit to building connection and breaking the ice.  In the UK, deep friendships form over tea and cake; in Japan, the tea ritual, known as “Chanoyu” or “Chado”, is a highly ceremonial process that encompasses much more than just drinking tea. It’s a profound cultural practice – going on for hours – that highlights the beauty of simplicity and the importance of community. 

Snacks have played an essential role in social gatherings and community since the dawn of time; they evoke fond, nostalgic memories, create rituals and play a very particular role in providing comfort. 

Snacks are a love language

According to Mondelez’s “State of Snacking” survey, 71% of global consumers agree that sharing snacks with others is a love language. Snacking is Love: Love is expressed in many ways and sometimes, it’s through the simple joy of sharing a snack.

Snacking icons

Think of some iconic snacking campaigns – Snickers’ “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” global ad that connects hunger with anger and emphasizes the bar as a quick fix. 

And the now (fairly ancient but iconic) Peperami’s “It’s A Bit of an Animal” series: a landmark case study in applied semiotics. The brand transformed a simple sausage snack into a cultural icon by using semiotic analysis to identify, and then exploit, specific codes of “meatness” and “animalistic” anarchic behavior.

Whilst these campaigns might not advertise the healthiest snacking fodder, we’re now much more nutritionally aware. Snacking has taken a sharp turn. 

As Sandie Dilger from Proper Brands (speaking in May)  pointed out, perhaps it’s time to reinvent snacking as an act of wellbeing.

Now to my three favourite AWE “snackingxculture”  sessions that stood out.

🌬️ How Vattenfall turned sustainability into culture 

–with Thomas Kolster and Andrine Nordby.

This was main stage material but I’m glad I sought it out in a smaller room: it was probably my favourite session. We heard how a Swedish energy company seeking “fossil freedom” created a snack, made from the seaweed grown on lines between turbines at their offshore windfarm.  Launched with Samuel L. Jackson – to promote sustainable food and clean energy, these seaweed snacks act as “food for thought” rather than a commercial product. Do watch the uncensored ad cos it’s sweary, fun and shows cultural listening at its best. 

🤑 Can Cultural Relevance be Bought?

In between (less healthy) Wendy’s chips and ice cream I made to see Ndubuisi Uchea, Sandie Dilger and James Satterthwaite  talk about how why the industry needs to think a little less like “marketers” – analysing briefs, context, budgets, the agency win – and more like a regular consumer: we need to think more about giving people a reason to CARE about brands. How? Through deep cultural listening, picking up signals and taking action. Find your community and work with them.

🍪 “You only have to tell people that they’re eating their digestive biscuit the wrong way up or talk about how they open a bag of popcorn or whatever it may be, and you get swirls of debate.” – TRUTH.

How to Spot Cultural Shifts: From Fads to Megatrends with Sam Shaw

Finally, a fascinating session from Canvas8 on cutting out cultural “noise”. Shifts ( 🪴 the example he gave was plant-based eating) have a durability of at least a decade – aka not LaBuBu. He talked us through five levels of durability: from fad to cultural norm. Something that we preach at Brands&Culture: don’t CHASE trends: actively think how you can contribute to the cultural landscape. 

In a world that often feels divided, snacks bring us closer together.  Think how much fun brands can have with this cultural institution.