Snickers Commercial Causes Outcry in Gay Community

The Superbowl is well-known for its advertisements, ranging from the funny to the sweet to the risqué. Every Superbowl brings something new, and superbowl XLI was no different. Sunday night aired a variety of ads from a variety of companies, including the ever-present Bud Light and GoDaddy, and from the lesser-shown Snickers, which created the greatest uproar of all.

Snickers aired a new commercial during the first quarter, showing two mechanics desperate for the same Snickers bar eating it Lady-and-the-Tramp style, culminating in an accidental kiss. Afterwards, the two jump apart and hurry to do something "manly," in this case ripping out their chest hair. Snickers also showed three alternate endings on their website, including one where the men did not rush to do something manly, and instead a third mechanic appeared, brushed his long hair through his fingers, and asked if there was "room for one more" on the "love boat." While this one fed stereotypes, it was not what caused an uproar among the gay and allied community. It was the one that aired and the two others -- particularly one that involved the men beating each other with wrenches as the "manly" act after the kiss.

While some were outraged over the male-on-male kiss shown on primetime, gay rights supporters were angry about something else -- namely, the fact that the advertisements seemed to imply that not only was two men kissing such a horrible thing that they were forced to jump away in disgust, but that they then felt the need to beat each other to prove their manliness and how gay they were not. The advertisement, whether intentional or not, was not only homophobic but also seemed to condone gay-bashing.

After the outcry of protest, Snickers, which had originally planned to air the winning advertisement during the Daytona 500, pulled all of the advertisements from their page, but as of Monday evening, had not issued a statement.