Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Resisting A Nice Bar With Nuts
So, the one ad I mention in my Super Bowl review is the one that becomes controversial. Less than 24 hours after the game, Snickers yanked its "manly" ad after complaints that it -- and particularly the "alternate endings" versions online-- was homophobic.
Once people referred to the concept of anti-Semitism without Jews. Here, we had a supposed example of anti-gay sensibility -- without any reference to gays.
My thought was when I saw the ad that ran during the game was that the joke is on guys who have a very narrow idea of what "masculinity" or "manhood" is supposed to be about: They are so scared they might not be manly, they start ripping out their chest hair. Dumb? Yeah, but hardly homophobic.
Anyway, this gentleman has the best sense on the need to rein in the PC horses:
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Once people referred to the concept of anti-Semitism without Jews. Here, we had a supposed example of anti-gay sensibility -- without any reference to gays.
My thought was when I saw the ad that ran during the game was that the joke is on guys who have a very narrow idea of what "masculinity" or "manhood" is supposed to be about: They are so scared they might not be manly, they start ripping out their chest hair. Dumb? Yeah, but hardly homophobic.
Anyway, this gentleman has the best sense on the need to rein in the PC horses:
Well I, for one, am a gay American — how, exactly, can one person be G, L, B and T anyway? — who has suffered a hate crime, and I am more disturbed by the gross overreaction of these overly earnest gay rights groups.Indeed.
The version of the Snickers ad that aired during the game was funny, if not exactly guffaw-inducing. Funny, as in funny ha-ha. Remember that, activists? This isn't Isaiah Washington cursing a gay colleage or Michael Richards unleashing a torrent of angry "N-words."
This was a silly ad for a candy bar in which two unattractive, middle-aged mechanics accidentally kiss and then have a comic overreaction. Do we really believe impressionable youngsters will learn life lessons from these two? They are the butt of the joke, after all, not gay people.
Let's not forget, too, that this same-sex kiss didn't just run in prime time, but on Sunday afternoon in the most-watched television event of the year. Long after the short ad spot is forgotten, a taboo has been broken, the "shock value" of a gay kiss has been lessened, and that's ultimately of more cultural influence than the mechanics' macho morality
Labels: advertising, gay, Super Bowl
