Ads Gone Bad: Snickers tries to make people snigger at gays
Posted by: in Marketing and AdvertisingFiled under: Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising
This post is part of our Ads Gone Bad series. Share your thoughts and memories of this ad in the comments, and be sure to check out our other posts on marketing gone wrong.
Mars Inc., has made not just one, but two ad campaigns for its popular Snickers bar seem to sneer at gays. Mars, one of the biggest privately held, family-owned companies, makes many of the world’s most popular candies: Snickers, M&Ms, Twix, Starburst (along with Uncle Ben’s Rice and pet food like Whiskas), but both of the ads gay rights groups found offensive were for the Snickers bar.
The first gay-themed Snickers ad made a massive splash in Super Bowl XLI in 2007. Two mechanics get so wrapped up in eating the opposite ends of Snickers bar that their lips touch, prompting them to decide to “do something manly” lest they accidentally catch gayness — so they pull their chest hair out.
The commercial not only offended gay rights groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign, but also was widely discussed and mocked as idiotic. Comedian Jon Stewart noted the on the internet alternative endings — in which the men pummel each other — were even worse. Mars didn’t apologize, but pulled the ad — while noting that it had been popular with the football audience.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Matthew Shepard Foundation found those endings even more offensive. “This campaign encourages the same type of hate that led to the death of my son Matthew. It essentially gives ‘permission’ to our society to verbally or physically harass individuals who are gay, lesbian or bisexual,” said Judy Shepard, the executive Director of the Matthew Shepard Foundation and the mother of Matthew Shepherd, who was targeted for being gay and tortured and left to die on a Wyoming fence in 1998.
The Human Rights Campaign says it began a “constructive dialog with Mars on workplace inclusion for GLBT employees” after the gay Superbowl ad. They seemed to think the company was making some progress. Then a new ad showed up in England in 2008 showing Mr. T shooting Snickers bars at an effeminate speed walker, calling him “a disgrace to the man race” and ending with the tag line “get some nuts.” The Human Rights Campaign stated they were surprised at the company’s regression, but applauded it for pulling the ad.
See other examples of Ads Gone Bad.
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