There’s an uproar in (where else?) the blogosphere about one of the Super Bowl ads — you know, the one where two macho dudes have a “Lady and the Tramp”-style confrontation over a Snickers bar.
Evidently, the ad was part of a larger web campaign by Mars. Their website featured some rather repulsive alternate endings, and several NFL football players registering disgust with two guys kissing. There’s been quite a fuss kicked up about it (from the NY Times):
Complaints about its Super Bowl commercial for Snickers candy — showing two men committing violence against themselves after they accidentally kiss — led the company to decide late yesterday that it would withdraw the spot.
Masterfoods, which received complaints from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Human Rights Campaign that the commercial was homophobic, also took down related material on a special Web site (afterthekiss.com).
It’s never mentioned in the Times’ article, but it was in the blogosphere that the complaints probably hit the requisite 10-decibel level necessitating action — and specifically, it was at Americablog (and here).
It’s interesting to me that I read this in a much different light… because I saw the ad, and the material on the website, as a satirical smack at idiotic macho men.
The reactions in the blogosphere are fascinating. Ann Althouse, for instance, saw it pretty much the same way I did. (Should I be worried about this?):
I think it’s funny. It makes fun of guys who are afraid of being gay, which isn’t endorsing homophobia. It’s mocking it.
While Daniel Rubin at Bling was apparently untroubled by the ad itself, but found the supporting site’s message a bit off-key:
My first reaction when I read this, was that he was making much ado about nothing. Particularly when the progressive blogger noted that the family that owns Mars is a big supporter of the Republican party. Leaving his feet to the throw a punch, I thought.
But what was up with showing ball player after ball player react to the video? Where’s Dave Kopay when you need him? And after watching the now-pulled alternative endings, which can still be seen here, I’m wondering what the ad agency and Mars officials were going for. Making fun of rednecks?
Down With Tyranny sees something extremely dangerous (like John Aravosis did), with an odd opening warning about candy bars causing cancer:
The ad is not just blatantly homophobic; it very much advocates extreme violence towards gay people.
And John Whiteside at Blue Bayou says:
It’s obvious, of course, that the marketing folks at Mars didn’t invent irrational horror of homosexuality; they’re just playing on it. Still, the ads reinforce a pretty repulsive idea: that responding to same-sex attraction with violence is, if not reasonable, understandable.
When I thought the entire situation over, though, it was the recent “You wouldn’t make it in pro football” ads that were playing in my mind.
Surely you’ve seen them? There’s one, for instance, where a relatively wimpy-looking guy somehow finds himself in a locker room and prepares to dress-out, but is immediately confronted with his obvious… er… inability to fit into the apparently standard-sized NFL jock strap.
Taken all together, actually, I think there’s something here that’s both more, and less, than screaming homophobia — kind of a Y-version of the anorexic runway model — and the entire situation is exactly what Dr. Steven Taylor called it: a pop culture rorschach test.
And we’re failing, because we’re such easy targets.