Superbowl Ad Met with Disgust
Snickers Superbowl Ad Met with Disgust; Jeers
02.05.07
By Ross von Metzke
A Snickers bar so scrumptious is brings two men into a full blown lip lock: A step forward for the gay community on television, until you see the reaction that follows.
Snickers fiends can go to www.Snickers.com and vote on alternative endings to a commercial that finds two auto mechanics munching through opposite ends of a Snickers bar until they meet in a passionate kiss, a la those two pups in Lady and the Tramp.
Their reaction? Disgust as they rip all of the hair from their chest.
Or, as you find from watching the alternate endings, downing a jug of motor oil after one says “Quick, do something manly.” The ending that has gay bloggers in an uproar? One of the mechanics smashing the other’s head under the hood of a car.
John in D.C., a blogger for AmericaBlog.com, discussed the ending in a blog this morning, saying, “Yes, the appropriate reaction to a guy kissing you is to beat the crap out of the guy who kissed you. Maybe Snickers should rename this ad “Matthew Shepard.”
The sticking point among bloggers and gay activists is that on the Web site, visitors can watch real players from the Bears and the Colts watching and reacting to the ad. “That ain’t right,” one says, while another crinkles his face in disgust.
In fact, not one player has an even remotely positive reaction to the thought of two men kissing.
Blogger Andy Towle, who alerted John in D.C. to the ad and discussed it on his blog www.TowleRoad.com, is up in arms, saying the Snickers Web site is outright condoning violence against the gay community.
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*Human Rights Campaign has demanded that the ads be pulled from the official site. So the ad/alternate endings are not available anymore.
But thanks to americablog.blogspot.com, there are caps & summaries of each ad.
Snickers has set up a Web site where you can view the ad that aired last night, and you can watch recorded-live-on-video reactions of real Bears and Colts players watching and reacting to the ad, and you can even watch the ad with 3 additional endings not shown on TV. You then vote on the three endings and the most popular one will air during the Daytona 500.
Why is this a problem?
1. Because the reactions of the Bears and Colts players to two guys kissing is outright disgust - you can watch the reactions by clicking under the "extras" button at the bottom of the site. "That ain't right," one player says. A second player crinkles his face into absolute disgust as the guy's kiss. The interviews with the players reacting to the gay kiss continue on and on. These are role models for kids, and they're telling America's kids, and rather scary adults, that two guys kissing "ain't right."
2. Then you really need to watch the endings of the OTHER three commercials that Snickers shot, the commercials they're considering airing during the Daytona 500.
Ad 2 (Ad 1 is the original ad that aired): "Love Boat." After the guys kiss, a third guy walks up, effeminately brushes his hair out of his eyes, and says, "Is there room for three on this Love Boat?" as if he's gay.
Ad 3: "Motor Oil." After the guys kiss, they say "I think we just accidentally kissed - quick, do something manly," and proceed to drink motor oil and I think anti-freeze - they guzzle it down, screaming at the top of their lungs, making them sick to their stomachs. The ad is vaguely violent - better to die than be gay.
Ad 4: "Wrench" (these are the actual names Snickers gave the ads). The two guys accidentally kiss, they say to each other again "quick, do something manly," and one guy proceeds to pick up a huge oversized wrench and violently attack the other guy, while the second takes the first and throws him under the hood of the car, slamming it down on his head. Yes, the appropriate reaction to a guy kissing you is to beat the crap out of the guy who kissed you. Maybe Snickers should rename this ad "Matthew Shepard."
Here the guy gets attacked with the wrench:
And here the guy gets his head smashed by the car hood.
