I’m a liberal. You didn’t need to be told that, but I am. You could easily glean from my various tirades that I’m anti-Bush, generally anti-religion (I cringe at typing that, though), pro-civil rights, pro-choice (redundant, I know), and also pro-America to the maximum.
However, I’m also severely pro common sense. I like being aware of people’s feelings to an extent, but I realize that coddling everyone who may be offended at anything is simply ridiculous. For example, I don’t like religious texts or icons being put in state-owned buildings, but you can turn your house into a giant Nativity Scene if you’d like.
So you can imagine my dismay at this overreaction to a “homophobic” Snickers ad I found on everyone’s favorite AMERICAblog.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, is calling on the makers of Snickers, and its parent company Mars Inc., to pull the ad campaign launched yesterday during the Superbowl. The ad features two presumably straight men who accidentally engage in a kiss and then try to distance themselves from any perception of being gay by “doing something manly.”
Three alternate endings to the commercial spot are posted on the Snickers website, one of which includes the two men violently attacking one another – which sends a dangerous message to the public condoning violence against gay Americans.
Now, the ad is absolutely impossible to find on Snickers site itself, and the copy of the “secret” version on YouTube is more than a little FUBAR’d, but for anyone unaware of the ad in general here’s the one that aired during the Bowl:
Whew, look at all that homophobia! Now while I haven’t been able to find the “violent” ad, the ad that won the campaign (apparently, since it was aired) paints a fairly clear picture. Two rather dimwitted guys overreact out of fear that they might have done something a little gay, so they do something idiotic to “get back their manhood.” It’s lampooning homophobia in a humorous way.
You wouldn’t know that if you read the comments on the above linked blog, though. Here’s a nice little sampling.
So I wrote to the candyman:
I am greatly disheartened to see that you are promoting murder of gays and suicide for those who aren’t murdered.
Please answer these questions to me in writing: How can you live with yourselves? How are you going to feel the next time a gay person is killed with a wrench or a tire iron? How would you feel if murdering you was a joke on a commercial?
Wow.
From the way these people write, you’d think the ad was Fred Phelps himself eating a Snickers bar and giving a thumbs up while saying “I love Snickers almost as much as I hate fags!” I’m all for responsibility in advertising, but this is just out of control. If we banned all ads that could possibly be offensive to someone, there’d be no ads at all.
The Mars company is not condoning hate crimes, they aren’t encouraging violence against gays. They made a joke at the expense of homophobics, but the oversensitive wing of my side of the spectrum just sees “joke about gays and something violent happening” and flips their collective wigs. Wigs that I’m sure are very stylish.
I’ve also gotten wind of a complaint by a Fast Food Union of some kind that’s complaining about the K-Fed ad (a “life comes at you fast” spot that shows K-Fed singing into a security camera at a fast food joint). You want to know why liberals get painted as PC-Nazis? Here’s your answer.
AND SOME MORE: What is potentially the most harmful is that this kind of “go after anything that’s mildly offensive” could prove polarizing. When average joes, or even people like me, see a massive campaign against an ad we saw as harmless, it creates animosity akin to the guy in California who went to court over the “under God” in the pledge.
Does that foster change? No, it increases the anger in those the fight is supposedly against and sours the ones who don’t have a side. Pick your battles, folks. Pick your battles.
Good God. I’m a homo and thought that the ad was effing hilarious. I also have a really hard time finding anything to be offended by. I’d be about as delighted as they were if I were to find myself in an open-mouthed kiss with a woman. Can we please stop it already with this state of being constantly offended.
One of the things that just kills me in this country is when people are offended by humorous commercials and the like.
Be offended and go after companies when they endorse people who advocate intolerance in seriousness, but when it’s intended for humor, leave it alone.
I wouldn’t say that the ad offended me, rather it left me feeling sick to my stomach.
I can buy the argument that it lampoons homophobia; at the same time, that lampooning is too subtle for everyone. Aware hipsters will laugh at the ridiculous lengths those two men go to prove their ‘manliness.’ A clueless dumbfuck, however, is going to take it at face value and his homophobia will be reinforced.
The trouble is that it is the clueless dumbfucks of the world, not the aware hipsters, who abduct gay boys, abuse them, and leave them dying, bound to wire fences.
When something seems so obvious to be one way but a group of people are arguing it is the opposite you need to ask two questions: why are they missing what I find so obvious, and what is it that I am missing. In this case it is the second question you really needed to ask.
What you are missing is that when you make fun of something, particularly in a mainstream advertisement, you are also show tacit approval for it. This seems so paradoxical that it couldn’t possibly be true, right?
If it weren’t true think of all the other things we could be making fun of in advertisements. We can all agree that slavery was wrong. Yet we don’t see any ads about a white slave master making an ass of himself. The idea is simply more uncomfortable than it is funny so it makes for a bad advertisement. Similarly, no ads with goofy klans men, or violent cult leaders, etc.
On the flip side consider the show “The IT Crowd.” Here is a BBC show that displays people who work with computers, particularly those in IT, as unsocial, naive, unaware boobs. IT workers must be railing against this show. But in fact they are not; in fact they are the biggest fans of the show. You can find examples like this over and over again: whether it was with Clinton’s final days video or Bush’s doppleganger at the White House Correspondents dinner. Because by lightly making fun of something you are accepting that it is alright.
What this ad said to a lot of viewers is “you know that icky feeling you have about gays… isn’t it goofy. But don’t worry, we all feel like that.” The joke is designed to be funny for those who can relate to it.
Steven H. Noble: The IT Crowd (http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/I/itcrowd/ ) was made by channel 4 and not the BBC.
I found the ad inoffensive.
Hanlon, you are stretching when in order to make your point you have to tsk-tsk the *comments* on a blog. You’re shocked, shocked, that “Doug” with a LiveJournal overreacts to something.
And you are misleading, when you reference one ad and present the reaction to another. I thought the ad you showed was reasonably funny too.
But if the ad was one where two guys kiss and are so horrified they might be gay that they beat each other with wrenches, that doesn’t sound funny to me. Ripping chest hair is silly, but — this shouldn’t be news — people actually are beaten up for appearing gay, and that’s what the commenter you quote was responding to. It sounds like the kind of not-funny that you watch with your mouth slightly agape, wondering “what the heck were they thinking?”
(If the name of the game is “pick on the blog comments,” please note, every one of your commenters so far is apparently oblivious to there being more than one version of this ad, and to the fact that the comment you quoted was talking about a different version.)
If Mars Inc. thinks literal gay-bashing is funny enough to make it through scripting, shooting, and editing as a potential ending, yeah, they should bring GLAAD in to talk to some of their staff.
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I’m Irish and I’ve seen “Irish Spring” commercials, leprechaun commercials, Irish people are drunks jokes, etc. I don’t see anything wrong with these of course.
I’ve heard ever programmer geek joke in the book.
Known people that were mentally challenged, or who suffered mood disorders…. and still laughed at jokes about these things.
Etc. etc.
Life is short and sometimes you need to be able to laugh at yourself.
The thought of two men beating themselves to death because they are afraid they are gay is funny. It shows how ludicrous homophobia is.
If it is still too early to laugh at homophobics that does seem sad indeed.
Sometimes you just have find humor in life – or at least try.
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I agree with you completely, Hanlon, about people doing more harm to their cause than good. I’m pretty far to the left and not at all down with Christianity, but when people make a huge stink about a Christmas tree in a public place, I always want to ask them, “Do you REALIZE how you sound? You’re a walking stereotype! You’re the reason Bill O’Reilly is so popular!”
Anyway, the reason this commercial (and even the version with the violence) is harmless is that the two men aren’t actually gay. They’re straight buffoons, who, like most straight guys, are grossed out by the idea of kissing another guy- just as my gay pals are grossed out by the idea of kissing women. The commercial is not saying, “Look at these two gross fags who kissed and feel compelled to beat on each other because of their self-hatred and shame.” And even if you accept the notion that boneheads everywhere will get the wrong message and assume it’s okay to to be homophobic because Snickers says so, which I don’t, then wouldn’t you have to also accept that they’re going to get the wrong message no matter WHAT you try to tell them? They’re boneheads! They probably think being gay is a choice. Snickers isn’t going to win or lose that battle, I promise you.
Thank you for posting this clip. I thought it was outrageously funny.
My reaction was “why would Mars run an ad that repels straight men?” Since I was watching a compilation of Super Bowl ads, I moved on when the guys kissed and didn’t see the ending – not that it would have made any difference.
What a way to sell food – make a portion of your audience gag when they see an ad for your product.
Sometimes cutting edge should end up on the cutting room floor.
“If we banned all ads that could possibly be offensive to someone, thered be no ads at all.”
Not that! Anything but that!
Jamie, I did mention that I was aware of the other ads, and that I only showed the aired ad as that was the only one I could find and in order to give context.
And that CONTEXT is the important part. It’s not that they were doing it because they hate queers, they were doing it because the very idea of being queer in their feeble minds drove them to stupidity.
People can be mad at what they deem to be insensitive, I won’t begrudge anyone that. What bothers me is when they start a crusade against the company and blow the whole situation beyond what it was intended to be. Mars was not advocating hate crimes, they were trying to make a joke about a pair of dumbasses overreacting to looking a little gay. Maybe it was in poor taste, but that was all they were going for.
Dan, I think you should have written the article instead of me, that was a perfectly concise way of putting it.
Geeze! Guys, why so hard on Hanlon?
It’s a stupid candy commercial for crying out loud!
I have no problem with the debate, honestly. At least people are talking, that’s what I like. Get some more back and forth with the audience and all.