Monday, February 05, 2007

Why Does Snickers Hate Gay Men? [Updated]

Did you see that dumbass Snickers ad during yesterday's Super Snore? If not, here it is -- and I am loathe to post this except that it is a huge issue.



John at AmericaBlog has the whole story including the other commercials and websites the Mars company had up, alternate endings, and who to contact to complain about the blatant homophobia in that ad. The websites and ads have since been pulled as a result of the backlash.

Mother Jones weighs in too:
Three alternate endings to the commercial were posted on a special Snickers website created by Mars, Inc. Also posted was a video of Bears and Colts team members reacting to the commercial, saying things like "That ain't right" and making faces of disgust.

Mars didn't stop there. They also posted commercials planned for the airing of the Daytona 500. In one, a man mocks what is supposed to be a gay mannerism, in another, the kissing men have to drink toxic substances in order to destroy the effects of a man-on-man kiss, and they scream and vomit while they do so. And in another, when the men decide they must "do something manly," one of them picks up a giant wrench and attacks the other, and the second man puts the first man's head under the hood of a car, and then slams the hood on his head. The Raw Story suggested this ad be named "Matthew Shepard."

The Human Rights Campaign has called on Mars, Inc. (which is owned by billionaire Republican activist families) to pull all of the ads from its website. As of now, you can get to the page, but when you click on the videos, they do not appear.

In a related story, Colts coach Tony Dungy is the honored guest at the gay-hating Indiana Family Institute's Friends of the Family banquet. Tickets for the fundraiser are $75 apiece, and it is expected to be a sell-out.

Who the hell thought that commercial was a good idea? And since when is blatant homophobia acceptable to CBS? Networks have refused to air commercials a lot less controversial than this one, so why did CBS think this was OK? So far, everyone is focused on the Mars Company, and rightly so, but someone needs to look at who in the CBS network green-lighted this dumbass commercial.

UPDATE: ebuddha questioned in the comments whether or not this whole thing might not be political correctness raising its ugly head. This was my reply, which is in the comments, but I thought it should probably be added to the body of the post.
If taken alone, the one commercial isn't too bad -- just kind of dumb. But the stuff that was at the web site, including the reactions of the football players, raised the issue to a more offensive level. John at AmericaBlog has all the details on that. Then there is the whole Mars Inc support of wingnuts and anti-gay candidates -- adds fuel to the MGM outrage.

In the end, I think you may be right about the PC-ness of it all. I suppose on one level (if you ignore the political motivations of the company who ran the ads and developed the whole campaign) the campaign could be seen as making fun of the "real man" bullshit that fears two men kissing, because as you point out, those guys are doofuses.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Huh - I wonder - is this some "political correctness"?

When I saw this, I'm laughing at the guys - they are complete doofuses, and this particular version, at least, isn't homophobic, but is making fun of those idiots' homophobia.

But, I haven't seen any of the other versions, that might change my mind, but for this particular version, doesn't seem much of a cause for outrage...

william harryman said...

If taken alone, the one commercial isn't too bad. But the stuff that was at the web site, including the reactions of the football players, raised the issue to a more offensive level. John at AmericaBlog has all the details on that. Then there is the whole Mars Inc support of wingnuts and anti-gay candidates -- adds fuel to the MGM outrage.

In the end, I think you may be right about the PC-ness of it all. I suppose on one level (if you ignore the political motivations of the company who ran the ads and developed the whole campaign) the campaign could be seen as making fun of the "real man" bullshit that fears two men kissing, because as you point out, those guys are doofuses.

Peace,
Bill

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm with ebuddha. If this ad is "homophobic", then the word doesn't mean anything much anymore.

md