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Super Bowl ad
gets snickers
By
Cyd Zeigler jr.
Discuss Snickers Super Bowl ad
Snickers
really satisfied some gay viewers, and pissed off others,
Sunday night with a kiss that has lots of people talking
Monday morning.
The ad
features two gruff auto mechanics working on the engine of a
car. One takes a Snickers bar out of his pocket and begins
to eat it. The other mechanic starts eating the candy bar
from the opposite end until the two, a la the "Lady and the
Tramp" spaghetti moment, lock lips in the middle. They each
pull away.
In the
version that aired during the Super Bowl, one of the
mechanics says, "Quick, do something manly." Each of the men
rips off some of his chest hair, and they each scream.
On the
Snickers Satisfies Web site, there are three alternate
endings posted. Each ad starts the same, with the two men
fixing a car, locking lips on a Snickers bar, and pulling
away.
"Love
Boat" ending
A third guy walks in and stands between the two men, looking
them over. "Is there room for three," the man says, flipping
his longer hair back as though he's Cher, "on this love
boat?"
"Motor
Oil" ending
After one of the mechanics says, "Quick, do something
manly," they drink motor oil and windshield wiper fluid,
screaming.
"Wrench"
ending
"Quick, do something manly." One hits the other in the
stomach with a wrench and one bashes the other in the head
with the hood of the car.
All of the
endings point to a rather sophisticated message. The two men
in the "Love Boat" ending don't protest or even react to the
third man's solicitation. And in the other three endings,
the two men try to do something "manly" to make up for their
kiss. Instead, they end up doing things drinking motor oil
and hitting each other with metal objects that are just
harmful and stupid, or they do something ripping off chest
hair that could be considered "gay."
The
sophisticated message seemed to be that the overreaction of
"straight" men to homosexual contact is completely
irrational, and, in the case of the proposed threesome,
maybe that contact is not entirely shunned.
In typical
fashion, however, some loud gays have totally missed the
point and are overreacting themselves. John Aravosis at
AmericaBlog leads with this headline: "Snickers
Superbowl (sic) Web site promotes violence against gays and
lesbians. Bears & Colts players react in disgust, on camera,
to gays."
HRC's John
Solmonese got in on the act Monday afternoon, issuing this
statement: "If they have any questions about why the ad
isnt funny, we can help put them in touch with any number
of GLBT Americans who have suffered hate crimes.
Well, I had
about 30 "GLBT Americans" at my party, and they enjoyed the
ad.
The
Snickers Web
site features some of the Super Bowl participants reacting
to the commercial. Aravosis focuses on the facial reactions
of Chicago Bear Muhsin Muhammad and Indianapolis Colt Cato
June, who look less-than-comfortable with the kiss. Aravosis
seems to be saying that not only are people not allowed to
be uncomfortable watching something, but certainly no one
can show that discomfort.
In the Web
site video, producers of the commercial can be heard telling
Bears tight end Desmond Clark that it took 50 takes of the
two men kissing for them to get it right.
"I hope
they got paid a lot of money," Clark said, assuming that the
two men were straight and did not enjoy kissing one another.
"I think this is going to be the most shocking commercial
for the Super Bowl."
Some of the
featured voices, however, are overtly positive about the
commercial.
Colts wide
receiver Marvin Harrison took the piece well, laughing along
with it and saying, "It's definitely a great piece. I don't
know who came up with it, but it's definitely a great
piece."
Bears
quarterback Rex Grossman had praise for the commercial:
"It's up there with some of the best I've ever seen, and
there's been some great ones. A lot of people that don't
like football will watch the Super Bowl for the commercials
and the parties. And those types of people are really going
to love this commercial."
This ad is
not remotely gay-bashing. The point of the reaction of the
men was so ridiculous that it made the reaction of straight
men to homosexual contact the butt of the joke, not the kiss
itself.
Some
enjoyed the ad very much. Seth Sutel of the Associated Press
gave the commercial his "Best Ad for a Loud Bar" award.
Love it or
hate it, Snickers will be getting far more publicity than
they could have dreamed of from this ad.
And if I
were Mars Inc., which produces Snickers, I wouldn't worry
too much about the boycott that Aravosis is threatening:
Containing a high fat content and more calories than you
could burn running a 5k, Snickers bars don't get eaten by
gay men anyway.
Feb. 5, 2007 |
