After this video appeared on CBS during this past Sunday's Super Bowl... three gay rights organizations immediately condemned the commercial as being homophobic, arguing that the men's reaction to the accidental kiss demeans gay men. The Snickers website offered additional endings to the commercial which included the two mechanics engaging in violence and another with the two Super Bowl teams acting out in amusement and disgust.
I often wonder why we put so much into stuff like this. Have we come to the point where we are not able to take a joke anymore? I am pretty sure there was no malicious intent by Mars Inc., but yet the homos are ready to rally and throw all Snickers into the river.
"I don't know what kind of mind-set it takes to think it's okay to slug another guy because of a mistaken kiss," said Neil G. Giuliano, president of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which objected to the ad. "It's just unacceptable. This is clearly the wardrobe malfunction of 2007," a reference to the Janet Jackson breast-baring incident during the Super Bowl's halftime show in 2004.
But Steve Hall, a former ad executive who writes the Adrants.com newsletter and blog, says the Snickers commercial has harmed the candymaker's image with all consumers. "Can you imagine the looks one will now receive from the checkout clerk when they buy a Snickers bar?" he wrote yesterday. " . . . There's plenty of other perfectly good candy choices with far less embarrassment attached to them."
Like Steve are you really serious… do you really think the check out girl at the Kroger really thinks you are a mechanic kissing faggot cause you bought a Snickers? With 3000 troops being killed in Iraq… global warming turning our winters into a slightly colder fall… our education system being one of the worse… I think our efforts can be aimed at something of a little more substance.
Post- Mortem
4 days ago
11 comments:
AMEN!!!
Well pa, I partially agree with you. From the standpoint that I haven’t seen the ad(s) and am taking them in the context that you’ve presented them, yes, there are many more important issues in the world than a 30-second commercial with a poorly-thought-out joke attached to it. Conversely, the saying is that, “We sometimes say things in jest that we’d like to say seriously.” In that vein, it’s important to take away the stigma that affection between men damages a man’s manhood or that gay affection is somehow disgusting. By laughing this off as a bad joke we let a stereotype gain momentum and are later discussing how gay bashings are on the rise. We’ll then sit back and ask, “Why is this issue rearing its ugly head again?” Well Red, this is why. We have to pump their brakes when they portray gay men or straight man-to-man affection in a negative light because we know what the outcome is when messages like these are misconstrued as ‘okay to ridicule or act on their ignorance about’ gay men. I feel you though… sometimes it does feel like we need to choose our battles more carefully.
Cocoa thanks for the comment but I would have to disagree. If a gay man would have kissed me in the same nature without warrant or being invited... I would have acted in the same way.
We are constantly reading our own thoughts into something that is not that serious. If we want to talk about stereotypes... lets work on all the stereotypical "Jack McFarland" characters on TV and in film, because those are the ones that mainstream America sees and judges us by. Gay bashes aren't caused by harmless jokes but the lack of tolerance and education.
I never saw the alternate endings because they were not shown on TV and only on the Snickers website and have since been removed so I can't base my judgements of this on them.
People are just becoming over sensitive to dumb shit. MAN UP and focus on more important issues!!
i have to agree with reddman... commercials like this are not out to harm but to make us laugh and remember the product.
but why is it that every tv show has to show some limp wrist homo instead of what average joes that most of us are.
yeah i agree with u reddman, this was your typical superbowl commercial that was just plain funny, i didn't take it was being homophobic at all, i think we need to know when to laugh and when to protest, this commercial is not a protest issue, i think i'll watch it again :)
There is a time to laugh and a time to be upset. This was a time to laugh. I was at a SuperBowl party with about 30 other gay men and women (all organizers of the Windy City Black Pride)and every person in the room agreed that this was the best commercial.
At first glance I didn't have a problem with the commercial either. I really didn't think it was that funny, but what I think the problem is: Snickers recorded the reactions of NFL football players before the commercial actually aired. You can see their reactions on youtube and I beleive on the Snickers website. Why would they do that? Who knows. Of course their reactions were typical of a football player who didn't want to appear anything less than macho, but didn't say anything that could land them in the spotlight. You could see twisted uncomfortable faces. That's why I believe that activist group had problems with the commercial. Some of their reactions could feed into homophobia, especially when they are somehow seen as role models.
The football player scene was an alternate ending. It was not ever aired on television just offered on the Snickers website.
As stated before, I have not seen that ending because it did not air and have based my comments on the actual commercial that was aired and what was reported in the Washington Post.
And to the comment as football players or any entertainer being a role model... that is a fault with parenting. No one in this world is perfect so we shouldn't assume role models or alleged ones are perfect.
i agree with u reddmann... this is an over reaction and football players are not role models.. and if your child thinks that you should check how you are raising your child and the values you give them.
I haven't seen the alternate endings. So is one of the alternate endings the football players reaction? I didn't have a problem with the commercial as it aired, but the football player reactions...Yes! And no I don't think all sports figures are worthy as role model status.
I was watching the Super Bowl with gay people, and neither I nor they had any problem with the commercial - we thought it was funny! Of course we were all women...lol.
L
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