NEW YORK - A Snickers commercial that aired during the Super Bowl and featured two car mechanics accidentally kissing has been immediately withdrawn following complaints from several gay rights organisations that labelled it as “homophobic.”
Mars Inc., the $18 billion company best known for its snackfoods, also erased all related content on their website in response to the criticism. The company apologised for the infraction in a public statement, saying the commercial was intended to be funny, not offensive.The commercial has also created a bit of a stir in the US Christian community as well, who were equally offended by the commercial, for different reasons, in addition to the response Mars Inc. made.
In the commercial, two auto mechanics are seen to be biting into a Snickers bar, each from either end. As a result, the two unintentionally kiss each other and become instantly uncomfortable.
Pro-homosexual organisations took offence to the commercial when later the two men begin tearing hair from their own chests so they could appear more “manly.” The characters’ reactions were viewed as demeaning.
The Snickers website also featured alternate endings to the commercial which viewers could vote on. One depicts a man grabbing a wrench to strike his coworker, who then responds by placing the other man’s head under the hood and slamming it shut.
"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," responded Neil G. Giuliano, president of Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, to the Washington Post. "It's just unacceptable."
The immediate removal of the ads by Mars Inc. has been questioned by some Christians, however. They feel that a double standard is being made by media between Christians and other groups, such as homosexuals.
“Corporate America jumps when GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and other homosexual groups complain,” said Robert Knight, director of Media Research Center’s (MRC) Culture and Media Institute. “I wonder if they wouldn't have yanked that Snickers ad so quickly had pro-family groups complained about it.”
Some Christians are also contending that the media unfairly gives positive attention to minority groups while Christians are unheard.
“Another striking element of this story is that media coverage of the ads’ yanking mentions that homosexual groups were offended, but there is no mention, by and large, about the visceral reaction from the rest of the public,” added Knight. “In other words, they bought into the gay line that the ads were ‘homophobic,’ as if only homosexuals were offended.”
Non-Christian sources have also doubted the complaints of the gay rights organizations, arguing that there was no need to be offended and that they were overreacting.
“My take on it is, why is it homophobic for two heterosexual men to kiss by mistake?” said Los Angeles ad woman Claudia Caplan in the Washington Post. “If a homosexual man kissed a heterosexual woman by mistake, would that be considered hetero-phobic?”
Snickers spent about $2 million on the commercial in production and Super Bowl airing costs. Around 90 million viewers watched the championship game that night.
