Barton F. Graf Gives Pretzels Attitude for Snyder’s of Hanover

Barton F. Graf launched a new campaign for Snyder’s of Hanover infused with the agency’s trademark absurdism.

“Pretzels, Baby” launched with a series of broadcast spots and social videos featuring actress Laura Wernette as the brand’s smoky-voiced pitchwoman. Wernette talks up pretzels as the perfect snack for a barbecue in “Backyard BBQ,” adding with a confident swagger in her voice that it doesn’t matter if you disagree since pretzels will “be around long after you and I are gone.” The ads all conclude with Wernette delivering the tagline, followed by a brief snippet of seventies funk. Other spots feature Wernette looking up bold in the dictionary, and smashing a pretzel into bits while explaining that there’s too much flavor in Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzel Pieces for them to be released as whole pretzels. Barton F. Graf may seem to be an odd fit for a pretzel brand, but the somewhat bizarre approach is memorable and tied to the snacks’ long history.

“People have been eating pretzels since 610 A.D. So, at this point, it’s safe to say people like pretzels,” Barton F. Graf executive creative director Ian Reichenthal explained to AdFreak. “A lot of flashy new snacks have come and gone in that time. And people may sometimes reach for them instead of pretzels. But if you’re pretzels, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Pretzels aren’t going anywhere. That’s where the confidence of ‘Pretzels, Baby’ comes from.”

He added that the selection for the right spokesperson was a laborious process, stating, “We cast hundreds and hundreds of people” searching for the right fit before deciding on Wernette, who embodied “a mom with the swagger of Telly Savalas.” Wernette worked hard to stay in character between sets, Reichenthal noted, practicing lines “while sitting in a Chesterfield chair and holding an empty scotch glass.”