What's this crap about a Snickers ad?

[sasquatch]

:shrug:

[Deja Q]

1. Two men, for whatever weird reason, chew on a snickers bar...

with their mouths at the same time.

They get to the middle, it looks like they're going to kiss, and both step back in disgust or whatever.

Um, where were their hands that they had to chew their candy bar with their mouths just like that movie "Lady and the Tramp"?

[sasquatch]

4. That piece of shit Ad pissed the fundies off?

Jesus people are fucking stupid.

[Cannikin]

5. No, It pissed the gays off. Said it was homophobic.

[sasquatch]

9. .

:shrug::banghead::silly:

[Deja Q]

11. The phrase 'whatever, this is just another stupid advert' came to my mind.

:shrug:

[MoseyWalker]

2. Too many of us were turned on

so they had to pull the plug.

uh.

[Tripper11]

6. Since pulling the plug.....

I've seen the spot more then if they had left it alone....it's everywhere now, and not as a commercial but a story.

[Squatch]

3. Somebody got offended. The rest of us are left

:shrug:-ing

[Left Is Write]

19. Who are "the rest of us"?

[Squatch]

31. Ummm...those who were not offended?

:shrug:

[Left Is Write]

40. I'm just wondering how you define that.

Because a lot more than just "somebody" was offended.

[Squatch]

50. Let's follow the logic, shall we?

Me:
Somebody was offended.
The rest of us (implying the set of persons who were not offended from the ad, either by not taking offense after viewing said ad, or by NOT taking offense because the ad was NOT viewed) are left shrugging.

You:
Who are the "rest of us"?

Me:
Those who were not offended.

You:
...a lot more than just "somebody" was offended.

----

Ergo, your response to my response is a textbook non-sequitur. Your question does not follow the discussion you and I were having.

[Left Is Write]

53. Okay, listen, I wanted you to define your view of "the rest of us"

because your original post implied that taking offense was limited only to a few and that "the rest of us" (implication: the reasonable ones) were not offended.

My response to you was not a non-sequitur. I really wanted to know who you thought "the rest of us" were.

[Squatch]

54. I never implied "reasonable"-ness in any of my responses.

I offered two choices:

"Somebody" was offended.

"The rest of us" were not.

I never tried to draw a parallel between taking offense and reason.

Your responses have been non-sequitur from the beginning. Not a bad thing...they just don't follow my premise.

[Left Is Write]

55. I think you're being just a bit disingenuous, because your "rest of us"

clearly gave away your position on the matter.

Your phrasing did make an implication. I apologize if you did not intend that implication, but when your statement is read from the point of view of one of the offended, it's not a logical fallacy to reach the conclusion that I did.

[Squatch]

56. Pray tell, what *is* my position "on the matter"

Careful you don't jump to conclusions...

[Left Is Write]

57. "Somebody was offended, the rest of us are left"

You said that, therefore the conclusion I "jump" to is that you were not offended.

[Cannikin]

7. Headline: Snickers ad pulled after complaints from gays

Candy maker will no longer run 'man-kiss' spot on television or Web site

HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. - A commercial for Snickers candy bars launched in the Super Bowl broadcast was benched after its maker got complaints that it was homophobic.

The ad showed two auto mechanics accidentally kissing while eating the same candy bar and then ripping out some chest hair to do something “manly.” One of the alternate endings on the Snickers Web site showed the men attacking each other.

The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation complained to the maker of Snickers, Hackettstown-based Masterfoods USA, a division of Mars Inc., which also makes M&M’s and other candies.

The Web site also featured video of players from the Super Bowl teams reacting to the kiss.

“This type of jeering from professional sports figures at the sight of two men kissing fuels the kind of anti-gay bullying that haunts countless gay and lesbian school children on playgrounds all across the country,” Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said in a statement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17011630/

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. It's controversial

:scared:

[sasquatch]

10. Jesus, have they ever heard of humor

[NEDem]

12. This is America 2007, we're not allowed to laugh

[sasquatch]

13. What about spanking Rev-Acts?

:shrug:

[Deja Q]

15. She's too sweet to be spanked!

You're bad!

[sasquatch]

16. I don't care I'm gonna paddle that ass like I'm Jack Bauer

:P:D

[Zookeeper]

26. That's just silly...

Did you actually see the website, or are you just assuming those of us who objected are hysterical?

[NEDem]

52. I saw the website

I thought the ad was stupid, and the screen caps I saw of the website were pretty bad.

I know that some say that, since I'm not gay, I'm not allowed to have any kind of opinion whatsoever about the reaction so I'll leave my un-worthy opinion about the reaction out of it.

[terrya]

17. Yes

Only with things that are actually funny.

[sasquatch]

18. Well Sarah Silverman's still on the air, explain that?

[terrya]

20. Humor is a subjective thing.

I, and other people, didn't find those ads funny. Simple as that.

[sasquatch]

28. Ok, but still, isn't the reaction to this ad just slightly "OVERKILL"

[Midlodemocrat]

35. If you are gay and you can say you are totally not offended by

this ad, you can say that. If you aren't gay, you don't get to tell the gay community that their reaction is overkill.

I'm not gay. I don't get to tell them what is homophobic. I'm also not black, so I don't get to tell my black friends that if they think a joke is racist it's 'overkill'.

See?

You can hold any opinion on that ad you choose, but no one gets to tell the GLBT community what they are entitled to be offended by.

[sasquatch]

41. Point taken

[Midlodemocrat]

44. Thank you for your reasoned response, sasquatch.

I know you are late to this and I appreciate your listening to me. I really do.

[sasquatch]

49. No problem

[NEDem]

21. .

:applause: :rofl:

[Midlodemocrat]

23. Trust me, dude. You DO NOT want to do this. Not at all.

If you take a look at the threads in GD, a lot of people who didn't have an opinion yesterday, have one today and it is that the ad was homophobic and offensive.

[NEDem]

27. Relax, I thought the Silverman line was funny.

I could care less about the stupid commercials. I quit eating candy bars years ago.

[Midlodemocrat]

29. Not worth it.

Not by a long shot.

[NEDem]

32. .

[sasquatch]

25. *Takes a bow*

Thank you, thank you!

[Zookeeper]

24. Sarah Silverman is very funny, but I imagine she's pretty...

threatening to some guys.

[sasquatch]

39. If you say so

To each his own.

[Zookeeper]

22. I'm guessing you didn't see the Mars website before...

they shut it down. Football players were shown watching the ad while grimacing/wincing and generally acting like homophobic asses.

The ad by itself, mostly just dumb. As part of their web campaign aimed at NASCAR fans, it was dumb and homophobic.

I sent them an e-mail and let them know I didn't appreciate them promoting fear and hate to a new generation of kids (like mine).

BTW, I'm a fan of edgy humor, just not stupidity.

[sasquatch]

30. Ok, well that was too much

Maybe they shouldn't have done that and should have apologized for that.
As for everything else:shrug:

[Zookeeper]

58. I'm not sure it would have been such a big deal....

if they hadn't gone to the trouble of showing the commercial to the players and filming their reactions. It's hard to say what the fall out would have been if had been just the commercial as aired. Probably eye-rolling and some questions.

But, Mars made their intentions very clear with the website. (Or they were astoundingly boneheaded..)

[Oeditpus Rex]

33. Or, the players' reaction might've been

one of "Oh, man, I wouldn't do that."

Which may or may not be a result of homophobia. Psychoanalysis would be required to make that determination.

It's all a matter of perception, and perception is neither right nor wrong.

[Zookeeper]

59. But, Mars went to the trouble of showing the players the...

ad and showing their reactions. Would they have done that if they were expecting the players to say it was no big deal?

One of the players looked off camera and asked, "Did those guys really kiss???" The answer was, "Yes, they had to do the scene 50 times." The horrified player then laughed/grimaced/etc.

The players reactions were stereotypically homophobic. Whatever. But, Mars didn't have to take sports figures, who are, for some mysterious reason, heroes to many kids and adults and present their reactions as funny and cool.

My sixteen-year-old son looked at the website with me. He laughed at the ads (like he might laugh at the Three Stooges), but after watching a little of the player's reactions and their lame-brained attempts at "analyzing" the commercials, he stopped laughing and said, "Mom, do we have to watch the rest of this?" Even my not-particularly-mature teenager thought it went over the line.

And Mars was offering more insulting endings as choices for the NASCAR crowd. And trying to get people invested in the ad campaign by voting. I think the whole thing was Incredible-Stupidity-meets-Homophobia. (In a crunchy chocolate coating.)

Edited for typo.

[Oeditpus Rex]

62. Interesting, isn't it?

That guy didn't look horrified to me, but shocked. And I considered that he could've been shocked because two guys kissed or because two guys kissing was going to be in a TV commercial during the Super Bowl.

Like I said, it's all in the perception.

What's dismayed me so about the reactions on DU is that almost everyone is saying "It is" or "It isn't" and judging others accordingly. Most things just aren't that clear-cut to me. :shrug:

[La Lioness Priyanka]

37. yeah i have heard of humor, have you heard about homophobia?

what about matthew shepard.

what does a culture that equates the possibility of men kissing as gross and disgusting teach the culture?

what stereotype do you think it enforces?

who the hell do you think suffers?

[sasquatch]

45. I didn't see it as homophobic? Sorry

"what about matthew shepard."
Really?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

46. well his mother just released her statement that she thought this kind of joking

caused the culture that killed her son. this is why i bring him up.


ON EDIT: i just want to clear up that i did not intent to imply that you were homophobic just that the add was.

[sasquatch]

51. He was the martyr that made people in America conscience to -

homophobia. When I was in high school before Matthew Shephard gays and lesbians were very much held in contempt by almost everyone and the one's that weren't were sitting apatheticly or going along like some kind of Stanley Milgram experiment. After he was killed people stopped casually calling people "Fags" or "Faggots" whenever they felt like it. I guess that will be Matt's legacy, sort of a Joan of Arc of the Gay and Lesbian community.

[bicentennial_baby]

70. You really are one to talk...

:eyes:

[Deja Q]

14. To spare the inevitable copycat:

What's this snickering about a crap ad?
:yoiks:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

34. There's an argument over whether it's homophobic.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of people being particularly disingenuous, purposefully obtuse, rather ignorant, and prone to name calling on both sides of the issue. It appears to me they're not particularly concerned with the issue per se, but exploit it for the sake of disrupting, name calling, and attention seeking. Per the usual DU flame war SOP.

There's also some really weird shit. Tangents about sweat shops in Africa, high fructose corn syrup, Norbit, adults who eat M&Ms, furry porn, and robots committing suicide.

[Midlodemocrat]

36. Because the disingenuous stuff is simply an attempt to get the

gays to 'lighten up'. Hey, dude, it's 'just a commercial'.

You aren't gay. (at least I remember that from your prior posts) I'm not gay. If the GLBT community tells me that they find something offensive or homophobic, I have to defer.

Most DUers would do the same. It's only a small segment who are refusing to see that this particular segment of DU is offended and continues to be offended by the defense of the ad.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

38. Like I said...

a lot of disingenuous stuff on both sides.

[Midlodemocrat]

43. Not seeing the disingenuous stuff on the side that was offended.

At all.

As a white, heterosexual, middle class, well educated female, I don't get to tell the GLBT community what they can or can't find offensive.

I have to respect and listen. As should all of us.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

72. No, of course not.

I also mentioned purposefully obtuse.

[terrya]

42. Sweat shops in Africa are a "tangent"?

Hmmm. What a unusual attitude.

[NEDem]

48. Unless Mars makes candy bars in African sweat shops

then sweat shops might be seen as a bit of a tangent on this issue.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

73. It isn't a tangent?

Then what has the sweatshop issue got to do with the homophobia issue?

[bridgit]

47. pft, dude i have NO idea, i'm just *so* glad i missed it...

whatever the hell it was :thumbsup:

[amitten]

60. Dumbest thing to argue about...EVER. n/t

[ghostsofgiants]

61. Am I the only person who thought it kinda poked fun at men's uptightness about sexuality?

Two guys accidentally kiss, so they do something really ridiculous to show how manly they are. The humour is derived from the fact that they're doing something so ridiculous in reaction to kissing, not from the idea that two guys kissing is bad.

[Oeditpus Rex]

63. No

You're not the only one.



Guess that makes you a homophobe, too. :shrug:

[deepthought42]

64. Hmmmm...I can see that.

That being said, I haven't seen the commercial. I don't care if I ever do. Am I the only one that doesn't give a shit about commercials in general? I don't watch them, I tune them out when they're on tv, and if I have seen one, I usually don't remember it 5 minutes later. I guess I'm not easily offended either.

From what I've heard about the commercial, it reminds me of a comedy act I've seen. In a parody of Romeo & Juliet titled "Tag Team Romeo and Juliet", the two Romeos almost accidentally kiss. After their near-kiss, they strike a manly pose and one asks "So, how about that chess game?" and the other says "I'm straight,". Should I find that offensive?

[deepthought42]

65. I wonder what the ad/reaction to the ad would have been like if

it were two women instead?

[ghostsofgiants]

66. There was a thread about that the other day actually.

Too lazy to dig it up though.

[deepthought42]

74. That's all right...I think I'll live *winks* nt

[MissMillie]

68. yes, I absolutely do think that's what it did

:hi:

[MissMillie]

67. yeah, I had missed it too

but I saw it on Olbermann last night, and I'm thinking that there's no way the folks at Snickers didn't think someone would be offended (and I don't just mean homosexuals).

Certainly, Snickers is getting a lot of free advertising now, as the news outlets play the ad over and over and over again.

[Name removed]

69. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bicentennial_baby]

71. ...

FREE VIAGRA!!1!!1!