snickers superbowl website promotes violence against gays and lesbians

[saz]

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/snickers-superbowl-web-site-promotes.html

[kleptomaniac]

wow.

[Abe Froman]

Two girls eating a snickers bar? No problem.

[cookiepuss]

heh. I saw the ad and thought it was lame...however...

couldn't Snickers argue that what they are really promoting is how idiodic homophobs are?
I mean pulling out your chest hair to prove you are manly is moronic. so is drinking motor oil...or whatever other alternate endings they have.

[saz]

the advertisement that aired isn't really the problem, but rather the website they've set up with the three alternate endings to the ad, which you can watch and vote for. apparently the ending that gets the most votes will air during the daytona 500. one of the alternate endings is essentially demonstrating that violence against gays and lesbians is okay, and funny. the mars family are republican activists (http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/mars-family-owner-of-anti-gay-snickers.html), and now the colts and tony dungy (http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/superbowl-team-indianapolis-colts.html) aren't really using better judgement as well.

[Bob]

i didn't really see the wrench ad as promoting violence against gays. i didn't get the vibe that they were beating each other because they hated each other for being gay, i saw it more as a more generic "lol violence and pain is manly" kind of thing

still totally unacceptable, it's definitely homophobic as hell, even if it doesn't mean to be, but i don't think the message is exactly "go out and beat gay people with wrenches, christian soldiers!" either.

[Whatitis]

So, this lady with the Mars family is worth 10 million and they can find only $10,000 in donations to the Republican Party and they label Mars as one of the top Republican activists?

Sounds like Americablog has more of an agenda than the Mars company.

[QueenAdrock]

I don't see it promoting violence against gays either. I see it as poking fun at stupid men. It didn't give me the vibe that it's better to die than be gay...not one bit. And I'm usually sensitive to issues pertaining to homosexuality.

They said "Oh, no, we kissed! Do something MANLY." I took it as them making fun of what men thought was "manly" - drinking motor oil, hitting each other with wrenches, ripping out their chest hair. I saw it as them making fun of how stupid guys can be. To say that they're actually PROMOTING violence against gays is going a little far, it's quite a stretch in my opinion. For one thing, neither one of them is gay which is completely apparant in the ad. If one was gay (or acted like it, by say not caring that they kissed) and the other one wasn't gay and ended up hitting the gay one in the face with a wrench, that would be promoting violence against gays (or people who think kissing guys is okay). If both of them freaked out and ended up hitting each other and doing stupid shit, that's not anti-gay. That's just them being dumb men (who are more often made fun of in our society). I agree with Cookie, it could be them making fun of homophobes too.

I think people are just too sensitive. Apparently everyone is upset over K-Fed's ad where he makes fun of himself by dreaming he's a rapper when he's actually just flipping burgers for a living. Someone said that's offensive to the people doing that kind of work because it makes that kind of work demeaning. In our society it's always been seen as demeaning work though, no one ever says "I want to grow up to flip patties all day," it's always "If you drop outta school, you're going to end up saying 'Do you want fries with that?' all day." Not saying it's right, but if they get upset over someone thinking their job requires no skill and is trivial...well, they're going to be upset every minute they're at their job.

I think people have to lighten up and pick and choose their fights. Pick the fights that are actually obviously hurtful, fight against things that you truly think will hurt society and impact how people think. I don't think either of the ads will change how people think or act towards gays or fast food workers one bit, because the anti-gay and anti-fast food worker messages are kinda vague and exaggerated and not worth worrying over.

That was long.

[Schmeltz]

^No doubt. I wouldn't describe myself as an intolerant person and I've made many posts here supporting gay rights and so on. And I still don't like to see dudes making out with each other. I make a face. I change the channel. It's not pretty.

True about the restaurant thing too. The restaurant owners' association or whatever were all like "This ad portrays working in a restaurant as a demeaning occupation." News flash, guys: working in a restaurant is a demeaning occupation, 90% of the time. I've spent enough time doing it to know.

[DroppinScience]

Reading the description and stuff, I more or less shrugged and thought "whatever." When I continued and saw the stuff for alternate ad endings, I have to say I got uncomfortable when it went to violence.

Surely it's insensitive, possibly even homophobic, but promoting anti-gay violence? Erm, that's alarmist and overreacting.

I have to agree with Schmeltz as well. I'm certainly not homophobic, but two guys making out would make me wince too. Frankly, I think most heterosexual guys would think that too.

[Randetica]

now i feel like eating out a snickers!




oh well that line would be more lesbian if snickers had no nuts added :mad:

[SoundScientist]

oh my god. not worth the fuss. either laugh or say thats stupid and change the channle. i think it's pretty funny.

[EN[i]GMA]

I thought it was a shitty ad, but if you think this ad promotes violence against homosexual's, you're a fucking idiot.

[abcdefz]

And they say Christians have no sense of humor.

Well, they don't, but still.

[yeahwho]

Mr. Pitt likes to eat his Snickers with a knife and a fork.

[Bob]

Mr. Pitt likes to eat his Snickers with a knife and a fork.

that could be a commercial

"hey, remember seinfeld? yeah...eat snickers"

[FunkyHiFi]

Promoting violence against gays? Phooey.

Just the ultra-politically-correct crew getting their boxers in a bunch again because a commercial didn't feature people with plastic smiles & blank eyes chanting "Everyone is exactly the same" over and over again. :mad:

Oddball sports FYI: I was a member of a college wrestling team and you should have seen the stupid "homo"* crap we (jokingly!!) did when the mat room doors were shut.......fundamentalist Christians would have passed out seeing that stuff. :D

* wrestling is definitely a sport that helps shows you what is truly manly and what is just homophobia; and it helps that most wrestlers have a good sense of humor - you kind of have to in that sport! - but the few that don't, well, watch out because they can be real assholes

[saz]

When I continued and saw the stuff for alternate ad endings, I have to say I got uncomfortable when it went to violence.

thank you, it's reassuring to see that someone got the point and realized that alternate ending just wasn't right. personally, i agree with the predominantly main sentiment in this thread, that the actual ad which aired during the superbowl was kinda funny, but on the whole pretty dumb. but yeah i wasn't cool with the violence in the last alternate ending as well, it was disturbing. regardless, snickers has taken that page down, ie vote for your favourite ending, from their site.

bob summed it up pretty good as well.

[FunkyHiFi]

snickers has taken that page down,I never got to see them because of this, so my post was about the one that aired during the game....in case anyone cared. :)

And my vote for most (pseudo) depressing commercial (http://youtube.com/watch?v=U9z-dnpMNKI) - a entire minute long this time - was where the GM robot was fired & then shown doing crappy odd jobs while that truly depressing 1970s song "All By Myself"(?) played. Offtopic FYI that I just found: this commercial has also pissed off (http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/) people (scroll down) but for totally different reasons.