Most people have probably seen the Snickers ad that premiered during the Super Bowl. Essentially, two mechanics (“heteros”) eat a Snickers from each end until their lips meet. Aghast at the “kiss”, they do something manly to compensate: tear their chest hair out.
Homophobic? YMMV as to what degree one might take offense at it (ranging from “not worth the trouble” to “profoundly disturbed” I suppose). But what has gotten some people up in arms is the supplemental material for the ad on the Snickers website, including alternate, more violent endings, and a feature which showed assorted football players react to the commercial (predictably, with rampant disgust).
Mars has since pulled the material from the site (though the alternate ending material can still be found on YouTube), but with no explanation.
So what, if anything, should Mars do? And what about the NFL, which had approved the use of its logo and football players to the portion that seemed the most offensive: the reaction shots–should they make some kind of statement/apology as well?
Really, Renob has it correct. I’m surprised the Budweiser ad where everyone is slapping each other hasn’t drawn attention as well. After all, it dignifies face slapping way beyond ordinary slapstick humor. Then again, gratuitous violence is quite acceptable across the country.
I don’t have an MBA or anything, but I suspect they’re going to fire the shithead that tried to promote their product, on the most hetersexual television broadcast of the year, by showing two men kissing.
The ad’s joke comes in making homophobia look ridiculous and stupid. If anyone is offended, it should be the “homophobic community.” They’re the ones being mocked in the spot. So, if some public figure, who spent the last few years condemning gay and lesbian people, claims outrage at the spot, I’d say, “Yes, they insulted you.”
I doubt it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they give the shithead a raise and a pizza party for 20 of his closest friends.
The ad worked. People are talking about Snickers. The commercial got everyone’s attention. It even caused a Sexual Controversy, which is now as much a part of Superbowl tradition as the grandiose halftime show and the multi-million dollar commerical spots.
Haven’t seen the ad myself, but I’d like to ask the folks dismissing this as innocent frat-humor if they’d reconsider that view in light of the variations Snickers was planning to air during the Daytona 500.
I refuse to opine on the other ads, but the last one seems way over the line to me…
I second that. My gay friends found it funny. My non-homophobic straight friends found it funny. I found it funny. I didn’t even realize there was any controversy until I read this thread. (Granted, I didn’t see the website.)
If you’re offended by the ad, you are probably either:
a) homophobic, and you’re offended that Mars is making fun of your attitude
or
b) seeking something that you think might offend someone so that you can complain and raise a ruckus, perhaps getting some attention out of the bargain.
Like I said, the ad is strictly YMMV (but personally speaking, tepid and lame but not overtly offensive).
But almost nobody here is responding to the nature of the online material. That is what started the protests, not just the 30-second spot. Given that it’s online, the fact that Mars can pull it and then ignore it (or pretend it never happened) is different than something that broadcasts to tens of millions over the air. And the fact that these professional athletes are spotlighting their own personal homophobia, what should the NFL’s response be, or are they just going to ignore it as well?
See I dunno, some things maybe there’s no such thing as bad publicity. But here we’ve got liplock and manspit on a food item, that’s major squick factor to most of the viewers paying attention at the time. Plus it just really wasn’t very funny or edgy.
I vote fired, get the guy in that came up with the King to handle stuff.
How would any reasonable person expect a football player to react to a commercial featuring men kissing? Regardless of what players do in private, they ain’t gonna appear gay friendly in public. Especially not in front of other players. About the best you could hope for is a Jeff Spicoli “Those guys are FAGS” joke, and it goes rapidly downhill from there. The NFL owes apologies to no one. The numbnuts that greenlighted this ad to run at Super Bowl rates should be fired. There’s just no upside to this thing.
I see the point about the athletes on the website being disgusted by the idea of men kissing. Seems like that might be offensive to gay people, like the athletes are implying it’s wrong to be gay. The other points I’m not so sure about:
Yeah, maybe this one - seems like stereotyping.
This I don’t agree with. Seems to me it’s making fun of these two guys who are so homophobic that they do these crazy things after accidentally kissing. It’s not saying “better to die than be gay”; it’s saying that these two ridiculous characters, that they are portraying, think that. To suggest that this is the message to be gleaned from the commercial is like saying the message of All In the Family was that you should be a bigot.
Same response. How is the ad saying this is an “appropriate reaction”? It’s obviously not an appropriate action; it’s a comically-insane reaction of two silly men.
I guess I’m more lowbrow than I thought I was. I laughed my tush off at this commercial. The only other one that even got a giggle out of me was the rock-paper-scissors one.
Meanwhile in a parallel universe on a planet earth where heterosexuals fight for the right to marriage and freedom from persecution, a slightly different commercial aired during the Super Bowl. It seems that a man and a woman found their lips touching while sharing a Snickers bar. Aghast that they might be perceived as heterosexual, they went to comical extremes to prove their homosexuality. All the gay people watching this commercial snickered and Mars stock sky-rocketed. When some out-of-the-closet breeders took offense, they were told to get a sense of humor. This led the government to fund a study to determine if the humorlessness of heterosexuals is genetic.
Homophobic? No, I also thought it was mocking these two guys’ gay panic.
My problem with the ad was that it was derivative of a much funnier (and at the time, original) scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, with Steve Martin and John Candy. “How about them Bears,” indeed. :dubious:
