Snickers removed a controversial Super Bowl ad featuring two men accidentally kissing from its website on Monday evening, and will not rebroadcast the commercial, according to a company spokesperson. The ad, which aired on CBS during the first half of the Super Bowl on 4 February, featured two male mechanics who end up in a lip lock after one man begins eating a Snickers bar and the other starts eating the other end of the bar. After realizing they kissed, one of the men shouts, “Do something manly!” to his friend. They both then rip off tufts of chest hair and scream in agony. The ad then directed viewers to a website to pick from three other alternative endings with the most popular pick to air during the Daytona 500 race on 18 February. The alternate endings to select from, instead of ripping out chest hair, were: 1) the men drinking motor oil; 2) beating each other up with a wrench and the hood of the car; 3) or a third mechanic stepping between them, flipping his hair, and asking, "Is there room for three on this love boat?" “As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer,” said Alice Nathanson, director of public affairs for Masterfoods USA, a division of Mars Inc., which owns the Snickers brand. Nathanson also stated that “feedback from our target consumers has been positive.” “In addition, many media and website commentators of this year's Super Bowl commercial line-up ranked the commercial among this year's top 10 best. USA Today ranked it No. 9 of its top 10 pick,” she said. The Human Rights Campaign issued a statement Monday decrying Snickers for what it deemed an anti-gay message as well as condoning gay bashing. HRC President Joe Solmonese asks, "Is Snickers suggesting that people who eat their candy bars are cavemen? It's an odd market to court, particularly after the Isaiah Washington flap a couple weeks ago, which clearly showed that there's a strong distaste out there for people who portray themselves as anti-gay or holding on to old prejudices and stereotypes.” But Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.com, a gay sports website, said the reaction by groups like HRC has been over the top. “I watched the Super Bowl with about 30 gay men and when the ad aired, people laughed,” he said. “There are so many bigger issues than fighting a candy bar ad. A lot of people like me thought the ad was making fun of straight guys because of the idiotic and stupid things they'll do to say they are manly.” Ref: New York Blade (m)
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 7th February 2007 - 12:00pm