Snickers Superbowl Commercial Pulled

The Super Bowl is over and like you, we were eagerly awaiting to hear what the controversy would be this year. Would it be a strange play during the game? A carelessly shown nipple? Someone lighting on fire? Unfortunately, it was none of these. This year, it’s Snickers, a candy bar not only known for being delicious, but for its strong homophobic tendencies.

That’s right, Master Foods USA, the company that makes the candy bar, pulled their 30-second commercial (premiering during the Super Bowl) which showed two men accidentally kissing and then ripping out their chest hair in an attempt to be manly. After receiving a multitude of complaints from groups like the Human Right Campaign, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and Mothers Against Humor, Master Foods finally yielded and yanked the offending piece.

Like us, you might be wondering how the piece is offensive, exactly. Well, according to the groups who voiced the complaints, the ad not only promoted anti-gay prejudice but also “condoned violence against gay Americans” (gay Germans, however, were luckily left unscathed.)

It should be noted that the Peanut & Chocolate Anti-Defamation Alliance also
thought that the ad was “anti-peanut” and was condoning violence against
delicious nouget-y centers.

The complaints would be terribly amusing if it wasn’t for the fact that the company actually responded by pulling the commercial. Whatever happened to free speech? More importantly, whatever happened to having a sense of humor? Are we, as a people, really that innocent, really that chaste, really that stupid that seeing the commercial at hand would send us into a gay-hating chest hair-ripping violence spree?

Besides that, have we all lost our minds? Doesn’t GLAAD have anything better to do — like deal with actual threats to the gay and lesbian population? You know, actually tackle homophobia, rather than get up in arms over a commercial that was not the least bit homophobic.

In fact, not only was it not homophobic, but to us it was a very clear satire of the silliness of the straight American culture — where a kiss would be considered an offense to ones sexuality while sports and pain are attributed with strength and manliness.

More importantly, it was a Snickers commercial. Let’s all calm down, get together, bring some tools, hire a few people with some know-how, build a bridge — and together, through solid effort and teamwork — get over it.

But don’t let us make the decision for you — unlike TV, we are not only keeping the offending commercial on our site for continuing Super Bowl commercial coverage (see channel 5 for the commercial), but we want to hear what you think.

Did Snickers make the right decision in pulling the commercials? Do GLAAD and PCADA have a point? Can peanut and chocolate live together in peace and harmony and not be so gay about it? Let us know what you think.