Today’s homophobic TV ad: Snickers
July 23rd, 2008
The other week is was Heinz pandering to homophobes and pulling a mildly gay advert for mayonnaise, this week it’s Snickers’ turn to tell gay people they’re worthless.
Snickers have a new advert in which an effeminate speedwalking man is harassed by Mr T, who shoots at him with Snickers bars fired from a tank-mounted machine gun and shouts ‘run like a real man’ and ‘get some nuts’.
Watch the advert here:
As Bil from Bilerico.com says, Snickers should “get some nuts, apologize, and make one hell of a large donation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Shooting at gay people isn’t funny - it’s a hate crime.”
Amazingly, this is Mars Inc.’s second homophobic advert for Snickers in a year. A Super Bowl ad in 2007 showed two car mechanics chewing on opposite ends of a chocolate bar and accidentally kissing, then asserting their repulsion and masculinity:
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[via Pam's House Blend and Joe.My.God]
UPDATE 25 July 2008: Mars has pulled the ad following pressure from a human rights group
That commercial was not bashing on gays in any way. The guy was speed walking, and that is about how it looks, and has nothing particularly to do with homosexuals. It’s lame that it try’s to enforce a stereotypical “manly” way of running, but that is all it insinuates.
You’re looking for something to complain about.
John ∼ July 23rd, 2008 8:28 pmJohn of course it’s homophobic! Maybe not directly in your mind, but most people will associate the gimpy male with homosexuality. Furthermore it suggests that you have to behave a certain way to classify as a “real man”… it’s the same logic used by people who think that gay men just want to be women!
Twizzle ∼ July 23rd, 2008 10:42 pmUhm, no. There is a distinct difference between shooting people to death because they love or sleep with people of the same gender, and spraying candy bars at a guy who engages in a silly form of exercise.
Homophobia exists in the world and it’s tragic. This is neither.
eryk ∼ July 24th, 2008 5:53 amMy view on the world is that the most important thing in any given situation is someone’s intentions. I don’t think that advert overtly set out to be homophobic, or promote a negative message about gay people. I’d seen the advert before and laughed, I hadn’t seen anything in the runner that made me think he was gay, just a bit weird…
Same with the mayo ad, and same with the other Snickers ad. If I accidently kissed a woman, I would probably outwardly express repulsion, so why shouldn’t a straight guy if he kissed another man? It’s political correctness gone wrong…
Mikalis ∼ July 28th, 2008 12:30 amEryk that is where you are so sadly wrong I’m afraid. It starts with kids using “gay” as an insult.
Twizzle ∼ July 28th, 2008 10:49 amAnd Mikalis that is a very narrow world view. You cannot simplify things like that. The point is is that the majority rules and heterosexuality is the majority so an advert showing men grimacing at kissing reasserts the heterosexuality as normal,natural correct and places homosexulaity outside of that. It doesn’t bear the same weight if it’s a gay man and a woman.
Twizzle ∼ July 28th, 2008 10:56 amMikalis just because you would react in a certain way to a situation doesnt make it right!
the point is these adverts use a form of humour that is based on the premise taht “gay=weird=funny” or “gay=wrong=funny”. its homophobic.
HF ∼ July 28th, 2008 11:27 amI find it offensive that you, the gay community are stereotyping other gays to be like that weird speed walker. How many gay people do you know that power walk like that? I’m gay and i don’t do that lol. I know no gay people that do that either. If you wanna complain then get with some power walker’s group and complain about hate towards power walkers lol. This is ridiculous.
Alteran ∼ July 30th, 2008 5:17 amSurely this is a gender issue rather than a sexuality issue?
Lauren ∼ July 30th, 2008 6:39 pmI see nothing in this ad to suggest that th eman speed walkng is gay. Mr.T actually specifically says “SPEED WALKING”. If your a speed walker you may take some offence to this but other wise just seems quite funny. I dont know about anyone else but I no way associate speedwalkign with being gay.
Harry ∼ November 26th, 2008 2:58 pm