Kit Kat's Snap Out of It campaign by Wunderman Thompson Australia dramatises GPS-navigation frustration in a Wild West setting, refreshing the brand's iconic
ARCHIVEKit Kat Takes GPS Frustration to the Wild West in Snap Out of It
Kit Kat's "Snap Out of It" campaign, executed in Australia in 2019 by Wunderman Thompson Sydney, dramatises the everyday frustration of GPS navigation by transporting a modern family from their SUV into a horse-and-cart in a Wild West setting, positioning a Kit Kat break as the humorous remedy to contemporary stress.
The specific execution, titled "Maps," was published in April 2019 and reported by Campaign Brief on May 16, 2019, according to campaignbrief.com. The campaign operates across broadcast, digital, and social media, with three media assets forming the core of its Australian rollout. In Australia, the work extends a strategic platform that Wunderman Thompson had been developing since 2017, when the agency launched the related "Katapult" execution — a medieval and fantasy-themed predecessor that applied the same structural logic: identify a recognisable modern frustration, exaggerate it through genre filmmaking, and resolve it with a Kit Kat break.
The "Snap Out of It" platform itself represents Kit Kat's evolution of its long-running "Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat" positioning, reframing the break not as a passive pause but as an active interruption of daily friction. The campaign targets Australian consumers who navigate the specific irritations of modern life — in this case, the well-documented cultural aggravation of GPS systems that lead drivers astray. By anchoring the creative in a Wild West visual language, Wunderman Thompson Sydney gives the frustration a cinematic scale that earns attention in a crowded snack and confectionery media environment. The campaign carries a Clapboard Score of 58 out of 100, reflecting competent execution of an established creative formula with room for stronger cultural distinctiveness.
Kit Kat's "Snap Out of It" strategy centres on a single consumer insight: the reasons people need a break have changed fundamentally across the eight decades since the brand first launched its break-oriented platform. Simon Langley, National Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman Thompson, articulated the rationale directly, as quoted by adsoftheworld.com and brandinginasia.com: "KitKat has always been synonymous with breaks, but the reasons for needing those breaks have changed in the past 80 years. The 'Snap out of it' campaign is about empathising with those common modern-day frustrations and finding unexpected ways to exaggerate them."
In Australia, the confectionery and snacks category is fiercely contested. The global confectionery market was valued at US$193.2 billion in 2019, forecast to reach US$219.5 billion by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 2.6 percent, according to Fortune Business Insights. Within that global context, Kit Kat's parent company Nestlé held 6.8 percent of global confectionery value share in 2019, according to globaldata.com, placing it in direct competition with Mars Incorporated, which held 13.8 percent of global confectionery value share, and Mondelez International, which held 12.6 percent, both per globaldata.com. Against rivals of that scale, Kit Kat's Australian creative strategy leans into emotional distinctiveness rather than price or product differentiation.
The "Snap Out of It" platform had already demonstrated strategic traction in Australia before the 2019 "Maps" execution arrived. According to clapboard.com and campaignbrief.com, the 2017 "Katapult" campaign helped Kit Kat Australia reclaim prominence within the snack category by pairing genre comedy with the brand's break ritual. That precedent gave Wunderman Thompson Sydney a validated creative model to iterate upon, shifting the genre setting from medieval fantasy to Wild West while preserving the core structural mechanic of frustration-meets-break.
ARCHIVEThe "Maps" execution deploys genre filmmaking as its primary creative tool. The premise places a contemporary Australian family in what begins as a recognisable suburban driving scenario — GPS navigation — before the frustration of being misdirected triggers a surreal transition: the modern SUV is replaced by a horse and cart, and the surrounding landscape shifts to a Wild West environment. The effect exaggerates the emotional reality of GPS rage through visual spectacle rather than dialogue-heavy explanation, trusting the audience to recognise the feeling and reward the absurdity.
According to campaignbrief.com, the execution aired in a 60-second format that drew specific praise from commenters on the Campaign Brief review published May 16, 2019. Reader responses collected by campaignbrief.com described the work as "awesome," "funny," "well crafted," and "the best Aussie comedy spots in a while," with the 60-second version receiving particular commendation. This kind of unsolicited trade-audience enthusiasm, while not a formal metric, signals that the creative landed with advertising industry viewers as a coherent and well-produced piece of Australian comedy filmmaking.
The Wild West setting requires period-accurate production design — costuming, practical vehicles, landscape selection, and sound design — to sustain the genre joke across its runtime. The tonal control required to keep the transition funny rather than jarring reflects deliberate craft decisions at the direction and production design level. The "Snap Out of It" platform's earlier "Katapult" execution won a bronze at the 2017 London International Awards in the Direction and Production Design category, according to clapboard.com, establishing that this creative series has been formally recognised for its genre production values. Production credits specific to the 2019 "Maps" execution are not publicly documented beyond the agency attribution to Wunderman Thompson Sydney.
No verified performance data for the "Snap Out of It" Maps campaign is publicly available in terms of sales uplift, brand tracking shifts, or media reach figures specific to the 2019 Australian execution. What the public record does offer is a consistent pattern of positive industry reception in Australia.
According to campaignbrief.com, the May 2019 review of the campaign attracted sixteen reader comments, with responses overwhelmingly favourable in tone. That level of engagement for a trade publication review, while anecdotal, points to work that resonated within Australia's advertising community as authentic to the country's comedic sensibility. The campaign's structural effectiveness rests on a proven platform mechanic: the "Snap Out of It" formula had already earned a London International Awards bronze in 2017 for its "Katapult" predecessor, according to clapboard.com, giving the 2019 iteration an inherited credibility in the area of genre-led production.
Analytically, the "Maps" execution demonstrates strong creative architecture. The GPS-frustration insight is culturally broad enough to reach a wide Australian audience while remaining specific enough to feel personal. The Wild West genre shift creates a visual payoff that earns media attention without relying on media spend to manufacture impact. Where the execution is structurally limited — and where the Clapboard Score of 58 out of 100 is most informative — is in its reliance on a formula the brand has already demonstrated. The campaign iterates effectively on an established model but does not meaningfully expand the brand's creative territory, which constrains its potential to generate the kind of cultural conversation that separates good advertising from enduring advertising.
Kit Kat's Snap Out of It campaign positions a chocolate break as the antidote to modern everyday frustrations. The 2019 Australian execution, titled Maps, dramatises GPS-navigation stress by transporting a family into a Wild West setting, blending genre comedy with the brand's long-running Have a Break platform, as documented by clapboard.com.
Wunderman Thompson Sydney created the Snap Out of It Maps campaign for Kit Kat in Australia. The agency published the work in April 2019, with Campaign Brief reporting the launch on May 16, 2019, according to campaignbrief.com. Simon Langley served as National Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman Thompson at the time of the campaign.
The Maps execution dramatises GPS frustration by replacing a family's modern SUV with a horse and cart in a Wild West setting. Wunderman Thompson Sydney used genre filmmaking to exaggerate a recognisable Australian driving irritation, resolving the tension through a Kit Kat break, as reported by campaignbrief.com and adsoftheworld.com.
Both campaigns share the same strategic platform and agency. Katapult, launched in 2017 by Wunderman Thompson Australia in a medieval setting, won a London International Awards bronze for Direction and Production Design, according to clapboard.com. The 2019 Maps execution extends that formula by shifting the genre setting to the Wild West while preserving the frustration-and-break mechanic.
Industry response in Australia was strongly positive. According to campaignbrief.com, the May 2019 trade review attracted sixteen reader comments describing the work as awesome, funny, well crafted, and the best Aussie comedy spots in a while, with the 60-second version receiving specific praise. No verified consumer performance metrics are publicly available for this execution.
Kit Kat's Snap Out of It Maps campaign holds a Clapboard Score of 58 out of 100. The score reflects competent and well-produced execution of an established creative formula, with the primary limitation being its reliance on a genre-comedy mechanic the Snap Out of It platform had already demonstrated through the earlier Katapult campaign, as assessed by Clapboard.
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