Iraq is going to hell and the economy sucks, and we are obsessing over a TV comerical?

[Odin2005]

Get your priorities straight, people. :banghead:

[Canadian_NewDemocrat]

1. which commercial?

[Odin2005]

2. It's the Snickers Super Bowl comercial.

[ixion]

3. exactly. thank you.

we've much bigger fish to fry at the moment.

[tuvor]

4. Yes, a TV commercial that exists without a cultural context.

Edited to add :sarcasm: just in case it's not obvious.

[Canadian_NewDemocrat]

5. uh

in Canada most people dont watch the superbowl...what does the commercial show?

[tuvor]

7. It's not just one commercial.

It's a commercial that has different endings and is part of a larger campaign.

Just do a DU search for Snickers. Or, check the link at Post #6.

[Bluebear]

9. Here is part of the campaign. NFL players disgusted at men kissing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2pcGABklyw

[NYC]

10. Advertising Age.

http://adage.com/superbowl07/article?article_id=114843

[Evoman]

32. Bullshit. lol

All of my friends and families had all kinds of superbowl parties....the streets were empty during the game. Canadians watch the superbowl as much as americans.

Myself, not interested in it...I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I know, apart from my mom and gf, that can say that.

[Hekate]

6. It was an especially nasty commercial.Read Mrs Grumpy's post on the Greatest page...

...for further enlightenment.

Hekate

[Bluebear]

8. What colossal nerve.

I have spent four long years protesting the Iraq war and trying to get Democratic candidates elected to help people's economic realities.

Pardon the hell out of me for spending 24 hours working on my personal rights.

[justiceischeap]

19. Shame, shame, shame on you!

Shame on you for working on something other than what everyone else says your supposed to be focusing on. :sarcasm:

[bliss_eternal]

22. ...bad sheep! Bad!

Come back to the flock! Do as you're told!

:sarcasm:

;)

[Goblinmonger]

11. Though I don't agree

with the assessment of the ad (I feel it was satire), I really do tire of the "How can we talk about X when Y is going on." All of us on DU are pretty intelligent and can multitask. We can think about more than one issue at a time. Just because people talk about the possible offensive nature of an ad doesn't mean they have forgotten about the war. We aren't raccoons looking at shiney objects.

[Bluebear]

13. Hi gm...

I don't know if you happened to see this part of the campaign, the pro football players reacting to seeing the men's lips touching...are they part of the satire?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2pcGABklyw

[Goblinmonger]

17. Thank you very much

for posting that link. I was unable to get to the snickers site before it was taken down and wished I had seen it. I am correcting some essays for an online class I teach and I'll look at it when I get done. Thanks again.

On edit: Notice that I took a stand against the throwing under the bus bit even though I disagree about interpretation of the ad.

[Bluebear]

18. no prob!

[justiceischeap]

12. So, I'm not supposed to be concerned about my rights as a gay American?

Or lack of equal rights? That's not supposed to be a priority to 10% of the population? We're just supposed to stop our work on our issues because they aren't as important as yours? Thanks for jumping on the "treat gay's like shit 'cause they're second-class citizens" bandwagon.

[bliss_eternal]

21. No, absolutely not....

...didn't you get the memo? :sarcasm:

;) :hi::hug:

To be honest, I'll never understand why some feel the need to detract from and minimize people's feelings. It's really insensitive in my opinion.

[justiceischeap]

23. Damn! I bet I filed it in the trash can!

What was I thinking??? ;)

[bliss_eternal]

24. LOL!

:rofl:

Yeah, I flushed mine. ;)

[Bluebear]

25. Well, the OP is not so concerned as to reply.

Off stopping the war, no doubt.

[treestar]

28. This is insane!

How can you put that much stock in a commercial!

This commercial can't threaten your rights.

The voters can. And they are not going to think you're sane if you take the position this commercial has major value.

[tuvor]

31. The commercial is a catalyst.

And perhaps a mirror.

[Bluebear]

41. So is your obsession with this ad!

What dog do you have in the hunt?

[justiceischeap]

45. Thank you for pointing out my insanity, apparently I wasn't aware of it!

If the commercial, for example, was of a black man, kissing a white woman and then a bunch of people came in and kicked his ass or worse yet, lynched him?
Then on the website the commercial was directing me to had a bunch of white men in trucker hats laughing, would I then be allowed to be outraged or would you say still say my reaction is insane?

Please, tell me the rules so I know what I'm supposed to be upset about, then I'll get in line like a good little sheep and you'll hear nothing more from me on the subject. :sarcasm:

[msongs]

29. there you go, obsessing again

now if you'd just pray to the lord like those nice football coaches.....so those manly football players can hold hands without being called a bunch of sissies.*

msongs
www.youtube.com/videos/msongs

*btw, if they WON'T pray will they be kicked off the team?

[ThomCat]

14. Not this shit again.

:eyes:

Listen, most of us are intelligent enough to address multiple issues simultaniously.

Civil rights, in all it's messy forms, is an important enough issue that I'm not letting go. It's staying on my list of priorities. If it's not one of your priorities then stay out of the way.

[Bluebear]

16. Hey, "lighten up"!

:crazy:

[Left Is Write]

20. Oh, no we're not.

Listen, most of us are intelligent enough to address multiple issues simultaniously.

Of course we're not! If we're thinking or talking about anything at all at any time other than the war in Iraq, our priorities are out of whack. We can't talk about cultural issues, social ills, or even our pastimes, because it distracts from all the real problems of the world!

[Subdivisions]

15. What's this about a TV commercial? n/t

[arendt]

26. You got my vote on this. K&R.

[treestar]

27. It does seem a bit strange

And if this commercial had not been a Super-Bowl commercial, no one might have noticed it!

[ruiner4u]

30. Oh yes, very strange indeed...

"And if this commercial had not been a Super-Bowl commercial, no one might have noticed it!"

Well golly gosh gee willikers batman, I think you got it!...

Lets review... Mars candy aired a commercial showing two guys touching lips, and freaking out.
On their website they had alternate endings where satire savvy viewers could choose their favorite episode... I can't decide which one I loved more.. The guys drinking oil afterward <hmmmm...poison?>.... Or the wrench-to-the-head fest...So deliciously Shepard-es que.

Even better the website posted little companion videos of NFL stars showing disgust while watching the lipfest!



Oh no Mr Bill!!! Lets show impressionable male youths <demographic male 12-15 year olds> their sport heros/idols/whatevers think that two guys touching lips is ikcy!

Crikey! That will go over swell in the heartland!!!!!!

For christ's sake. I dont even know where to begin. First of all, this is not some sort of satire showing the silliness of homophobia as some people believe. Satire would require interpretation and a measured amount of critical thinking after the fact. A company would not blow millions for a 30 second ad during one of the most prime advertising slots of the year to engage in social commentary. If you believe that, then I know of some WMD's in Iraq that are laying around. What they were doing was trying to catch a whole bunch of demographics and entertain them.. They were not trying to dispel homophobia, they were counting on it.

Second, gay youth in this country have a hard enough time as it is, with a much higher suicide rate then their straight counterparts.Im sorry I cant cite a link, but im sure the information readily available via google.

Now this? This kind of crass and irresponsible ad campaign would do nothing but further perpetuate the harassment they already receive in a fragile time of their lives. Now we have sports personalities coming out <heh> and showing disgust at the idea of homosexuality. Thats a great mind-fuck, lemme tell ya.


And lastly, I am just SOOOOOO sorry to the OP that I spent 20 minutes of my beautiful mind on this trivial little "gay" matter when Iraq, Iran, and Rove are around. In the future, send me the "just get over it" memo so I know not to get offended before I see something that will offend me...

Thanks much... :)

[ThomCat]

39. Well said.

People will gloss over what you wrote and ignore the point, because they desperately want their straight sensibilities to be preserved. After all, it's those damned queers who are getting uppity and acting up by complaining.
:eyes:

But you have written an excellent post for anyone who stops to read it and consider it.

[ruiner4u]

50. thank you thom...

personally I thought the satire PhD's on here would eat it up...


The best post EVA

"Cultural issues are moot when people are just worrying about surviving to tomorrow."

hell, that would be a DU-zy...

[ProfessorGAC]

54. I Certainly Buy That

Quite honestly, i don't think the writers, directors, and "choosers" of commercials are quite attuned enough to do satire. If they're doing satire, they doing TV shows, or doing stand-up, not writing commercials.

About the only way i buy that is if we know that a gay man wrote the script and HE SAYS it was satire. Otherwise, i don't think they would be clever enough to do satire in a commercial.
The Professor

[FunkyLeprechaun]

33. Amen

I support gay rights, gay marriage, gay adoption, anything gay. I have many gay friends. After not having a boyfriend for a long time, I experimented once (made out with a girl) and decided men were for me after finally meeting the right guy.

That commercial was in no way anti-gay. It was anti-homophobic. I told my gay UK friend about this commercial and he thought it was hilarious.

Maybe it's the British humour. It's much more crass and borderline offensive, just take a look at Little Britain, they make fun of gay people (Matt Lucas is gay himself), incontinent people, etc. Matt Lucas plays Gay/Homophobe? Dafydd Thomas who says he's gay and absolutely refuses to believe there are other gay people in the small hamlet of Llandewi Brefi, "But, I'm the only gay in the Village," then recoils in horror when people say they're gay to him.

That's what I though of besides Planes Trains and Automobiles. I bet Wailliams and Lucas dealt with homophobia in many occassions of Little Britain, but Lucas' performance of Dafydd Thomas tops 'em all.

The Snickers Commercial= Satire. That's what it is. Let's move on. There are bigger domestic issues (gay marriage, adoption), why deal with negatives?

[LostinVA]

34. Equal civil rights and respect for ALL Americans should be our nation's priority n/t

[Odin2005]

38. Tell that to people who can't make ends meet.

Cultural issues are moot when people are just worrying about surviving to tomorrow.

[ThomCat]

40. Bullshit.

If you only address class issues and ignore discrimination, then you only improve the people who aren't subject to discrimination.

We've seen over and over again that no matter how you improve the economy and swell the middle class, those who are subject to discrimination benefit less often, and to a lesser extent. The lion's share of the gains go to the group in power. (white, straight people, mostly males.)

So you're "wisdom" is just advocating more of the same.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

42. Because people can't be poor AND oppressed, right?

:eyes:

[donheld]

35. could not disagree more.

Go ahead give up your civil rights, but give me mine.

[rosesaylavee]

36. It is all of a piece. The War, the Economy and

the stupidity exhibited by this commercial.

It ALL is the result of small groups of powerful, selfish people* getting to do whatever the hell they want to do because they have the money to do so. If a few people - ok, a few million people get in their way, isolate them, make their lives miserable. These masses of 'poor folk' will be so busy trying to keep their noses above water to survive that they won't know their liberties are slowly slipping away. Changing the culture that says the above is ok would take a lot of effort on their part (e.g. protests, boycotts, discussing positive change on progressive sites, etc.) and when would they find the time or energy to do so. The small powerful selfish people are laughing all the way to the bank in the Caymans where they vacation a few times a year.

Money means never having to say your sorry, right?





*Unfortunately, not the same group of people. That would be too easy to fight a target smaller than the prevailing culture.

[lonestarnot]

37. And don't forget the woman on a mission in diapers.

[Initech]

43. I think I'm the only DUer who has not seen said commercial.

But yeah, you're right - get your priorities straight here.

[Bluebear]

44. Thanks for that well-informed opinion.

:eyes:

[michaz]

46. That was uncalled for!

This country has other things going on also. We are able to call attention to those things that are important to other people too. We do not all have tunnel vision.

[leftofthedial]

47. get your priorities "straight" ----- ??!

:rofl:

You're killing me!

Bwaaahahahahahaaaaaa!

[Odin2005]

53. LOL, I didn't even intend that pun!

:rofl:

[sniffa]

48. thanks for the advice

:eyes:

[Bluebear]

49. Yeah, we're obsessing over a comerical.

:eyes:

[BluePatriot]

51. THANK YOU. (nt)

[watercolors]

52. That, and an astronaut in diapers!

can it get any more wierd in this country?

[Marie26]

55. Same reason people obsess

over American Idol. We are totally powerless over Iraq, everyone knows it's a disaster, & everyone knows there's no solution. So we focus on other things instead to distract ourselves from the elephant in the middle of the room. Plus, on American Idol, your vote will actually change things.

[Broken_Hero]

56. Locking

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Thanks,
petersond
DU Moderator