February 05, 2007

Snickers' Super Homophobia For their contribution to SuperBowl advertising yesterday, Snickers ran an spot where two mechanics start eating a Snickers bar from opposite ends until they end up kissing, a la "Lady and the Tramp." Then, to prove how not gay they really are, they have to "do something manly" to compensate. The SuperBowl version has the men ripping out their chest hair as their proof of manliness, but other versions of the ad have the guys swilling motor oil or attacking each other violently in response. As if this wasn't explicitly disapproving enough for probably the most-viewed gay kiss ever on US TV, there is also an accompanying site which shows the ads and various football players being appalled by the kiss. I guess the only thing that satisfies more than Snickers is not being gay? via.
  • I really tried to work up some kind of minor outrage for this.. but... nope. Sorry.
  • See the "Those aren't pillows!!!" scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Pretty much the same thing, really.
  • And really, does this say "being gay is bad" to you? Because to me it says "accidentally kissing another guy when you're not gay is bad", and that's a whole different message.
  • The naked homophobia sports commentators are spouting about this has been . . okay, sorry, sorry let me start again. *ahem* What I heard today was something along the lines of "Kids were watching this! Kids!" OMG dudes kissing = totally teh ghey!!1! etc. etc. How dare they sully the roaring, goon-juiced manliness of the StupidBowl. Also the ad, like many others, was awful. Researchers at UCLA tracked several viewers' brain activity as they watched Super Bowl ads, gauging their emotional reaction. In many cases, the ads produced feelings of anxiety and fear. Overall, researchers concluded that most of the ads made people take notice — but didn't necessarily make them feel good.
  • If I felt good I wouldn't have to buy their crap.
  • Have they heard of Barbara Kruger?
  • i guess you're right, Space Coyote getting the crap beaten out of someone for kissing another man isn't worthy of any sort outrage. Please, feel free to beat me senseless next time you see me, since I am guilty of just that offense.
  • You beat the crap out of men-kissers? Oy!
  • *coughs politely* crap is not what i beat.... oh, never mind.
  • Good job they weren't eating a Mars Bar.
  • My take: 1. Chest hair - mildly amusing, and as Rocket88 said, quite reminiscent of prior comedy done along these same lines. 2. Drinking oil and antifreeze. That's not manly, that is suicide, and is irresponsible to air. Sickening. 3. Threesome. Well. Maybe they ARE gay. Okay. 4. Violent attacks. Totally, mindfuckingly unacceptable.
  • They aren't gay bashing, they're calling homophobes idiots by showing homophobes doing stupid things, like drinking motor oil and anti-freeze, attacking each other with wrenches, and pulling out their chest hair, overall: being insecure with their masculinity.
  • Also: it's pretty funny that those NFL players can play grab ass-all day long on the field but when it comes to the kiss, it "ain't right." I guess the mouth guard gets in the way.
  • Snickers? Wrong candy I would have rather seen the gay theme used with the Klondike Bar ad campaign. What would you do for a Klondike bar?
  • i guess you're right, Space Coyote getting the crap beaten out of someone for kissing another man isn't worthy of any sort outrage. Please, feel free to beat me senseless next time you see me, since I am guilty of just that offense. I guess I missed the version of the commercial where this happened. Got a link?
  • Yup.
  • See, I didn't take it that way at all. I took the humor more as a mockery of the two characters' stupidity and discomfort. Sort of a look-at-the-morons kind of thing, they're so insecure and stupid that they have to cause themselves physical pain to prove their manliness.
  • Or, you know, what InsolentChimp said. Previewing is so gay.
  • Ditto mostly what rocket88 said near the top of the thread. Why is it funny and chic when Jack McFarland makes derogatory remarks about Grace's disgusting lady-bits, but it's homophobic and unacceptable when it's an over-the-top straight stereotype making remarks about gay-ness? Aren't they both essentially parodies of extreme points of view, wherein we can see the grain of truth but recognize the larger joke? On another note: "4. Violent attacks. Totally, mindfuckingly unacceptable." I don't follow. Unacceptable because of the violence portrayed? Or because it implies that the Traditional Masculine Stereotype (TM) is associated with physicality/violence/strength/pain/etc.? Or something else entirely?
  • I agree with IC and mct. The kiss is portrayed as very sweet (yeah, yeah, like the product), and the homophobery is shown to be totally inane. It looks to me like this ad is very anti-homophobe and not at all anti-gay. Oh, and pro-carbohydrate.
  • Fag!! /Bill and Ted
  • Sort of a look-at-the-morons kind of thing, they're so insecure and stupid that they have to cause themselves physical pain to prove their manliness You must be thinking of NASCAR
  • Seriously, you've never seen either homosexuality or homophobia played for laughs before? Please get off your high horse.
  • Maybe the ad can only really convey one thing: what the Snickers' advertising agency think will work to make the intended customer base buy the bloody things. In this case arguably that manliness and being gay are incompatible.
  • i guess you're right, Space Coyote getting the crap beaten out of someone for kissing another man isn't worthy of any sort outrage. Please, feel free to beat me senseless next time you see me, since I am guilty of just that offense. If you and your partner want to smack each other around after kissing that is your right as an adult.
  • Snickers is one of the most phallic candy bars on the market.
  • Hey, I thought it was a new promotional gimmick: Snickers, the candy bar of gays everywhere! Didn't watch the SB as I could care less about futbool, but had the SO call me for the commercials. The animals SOOOO ruled! Loved the one about the mouse not being hooked up, the Budwiser non-dalmation was cute, too. Missed the Bud horses, though.
  • Snickers has pulled the ads: link.
  • As a gay male, here is my official statement: "Meh." Thank you
  • Since neither of the gentlemen in the ad was gay (AFAICT), this is hardly a 'gay' issue. It is, however, quite lame.
  • I am truly saddened by how much this thread makes me want to eat a Snickers.
  • As a straight male who has studied gay men closely for years in controlled laboratory settings, here is my official statement: "Meh."
  • makes me want to eat a Snickers. If you had any idea what that means in Webster's 2011 Gay Slang Dictionary, you would clearly not be saying it.
  • So two mechanics kissing was this year's 'malfunction' scandal? Meh. Well, at least it didn't involve Prince...
  • Kind of funny when the one guy leans under the hood so the other guy can slam it on his head. But overall, lame, but because they're not funny rather than because they're homophobic. Guess I'm in the mct/rocket88 camp on this one.
  • Odd they say they've pulled the ads. I saw one on G4 about 2 hours ago. And now, having seen the ad, I am with those who say it more seems to portray these homophobes as idiots. Big furor over nothing.
  • I didn't see the Super Bowl and haven't seen the commercial. I agree that, as described, it could be seen as homophobic, especially if you're very sensitive to homophobia in an activist sense. (I don't mean any disrespect by that, only that I interact with many people online who are activist about various issues, and they are much more sensitive to those issues than most - for example, I was attacked for being "fat-o-phobic" because I bought a Weight Watchers cookbook and commented publicly that I thought I needed to lose a few pounds. I've also seen ppl decry certain movies that mock racism and racists, in a comedic way, as racist in themselves.) However, I have to flatly disagree when this is described as "probably the most-viewed ever gay kiss on US tv" - it's not a "gay kiss" if neither the actors nor characters are gay, is it? Two men accidentally kissing isn't "gay" - two men kissing because they each like to kiss men and wanted to kiss the person they're kissing? Is gay. (In other words, sorta like what rocket88 said, but I mean specifically to say that I don't think a kiss between two men is necessarily a "gay kiss," if it isn't sexual.)
  • you're absolutely right verbminx, i should have said intra-male kiss, not gay. But, of course, the kiss made them gay...
  • Now, Ellen Degeneres' smooch with that gal, now that was a gay kiss!
  • Any kiss done in an act of gaeity is, by all means, gay. On that note, I think I'm bi. But no worries here; everybody loves you when you're bi. Or maybe I'm French? Does that lose me any love? Now I'm concerned...
  • Snickers is one of the most phallic candy bars on the market. why, it looks like a shit-covered dick!...now that's gay. sorry. had to.
  • Some of my closests friends are gay, which gives me the utmost authority to say, "meh".
  • Some of my closet's friends are gay. Ni!
  • Monkeyfilter: "Meh." Thank you.
  • it's a perfectly cromulent word.
  • It's extremely important to pass anti-gay-superbowl legislation immediately. Please write your congressmen at once. Make sure to include wording to exempt the Cheney children from any such legislation.
  • I agree. Did you see the pre game entertainment with all the bright colors and balloons? I think everyone at the strip club I was at agreed that it was a little too.... flamboyant.
  • I too, am craving a Snickers bar right now. As for the commercial dealio, I fall squarely in the "meh" category. On a scale of "right on" to "horribly, stupidly offensive" this lands at approximately " *sigh* "
  • Commercial itself, Bleh. Crazy threatened-sports-guy reaction to: Yeek.
  • Is "bleh" the same as "meh"?
  • Couldn't find a another thread for it so . . *thunk* "He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing." Mmkay?
  • "He is completely heterosexual," Ralph said. "That is something he discovered. It was the acting-out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing." He sucked cock dozens of times, and he didn't like it ONCE! Yes, I'm ashamed of myself. But not so much so that I couldn't post my joke.
  • • Ralph: Haggard said his sex with men was limited to former male prostitute "If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly," he said. "We're into this thing over 90 days and it hasn't happened." That seems rather unrelated.
  • *Snickers*
  • Ah, the complete Moses complex. A basket case in de Nile.
  • I object to the use of the proper noun "Ralph" in this thread. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
  • In HUNGERECTOMY (q.v.), all I see is hung and rectum. Which is to say: rammed up your ass, Snickers really satisfies.
  • *Ralphs*
  • "If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly," he said. "We're into this thing over 90 days and it hasn't happened." That seems rather unrelated. No, no. It's all related. What they mean is that because 25 other male prostitues haven't come forward, then Haggard isn't gay. Why is that so hard to understand?
  • Masterfoods pulls ad "As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer." Core Snickers consumer?
  • Hungry homophobes.
  • A corporation's over riding goal is to make money. Anything else is secondary. Once this is understood then it is obvious Mars was only trying to reach their "core consumer" of males 18-24. From this point of view, the commercials make perfect sense. They just didn't go far enough. They should have had a constellation of ads drawn up to appeal to their core demographic. For example "the most militant, in both far-right and neo-Nazi groups, are unemployed young males, and this applies not only in Europe but in North America." One idea would be a commercial showing a group of young adults going out to tag a sinagog yet forgot to bring their spraypaint. Camera pans over their saddened faces and as they turn to go home one of the young males takes out a Snickers bar, unwraps it and uses its chocolatey goodness to smear a swastika and other neo-nazi symbols on the side of the sinagog while happy music plays. High fives all around as the screen fades to "snickers satsfies!". This wouldn't be anti-semetic, of course, as it just points out how forgetful anti-semites are to forget their paint.
  • "Packed with penis, Snickers really satisfies." Not the brightest peanuts in the turd.
  • Look, did this advert feature deep anal fisting or not, because if not I fucking off back to PornoTube right now.
  • OK. Snickers candy bar. Gay. Got it.
  • MonkeyFilter: Not the brightest peanuts in the turd.
  • Core Snickers consumer? Those consumers who eat only the peanut-studded nougat, leaving a hollow shell ot chocolate and caramel. Duh.
  • Which they then shit into, freeze and insert anally. Or so I've heard.
  • *sniff* *sniff* Is that the heady smell of intellectual conversation?? Ah. Just kit, I see. Whoo! Dude, that's so wrong.
  • One of the guys at the office came up with the idea of putting that Magic Shell chocolate stuff on his weiner, letting it harden, then carefully removing it and filling the cavity with ice cream and selling it as a frozen dessert. He believes he could become a millionaire this way. We're professionals.
  • Ah, yes, the patented Dick-on-a-Stick™. Good Humor, indeed.
  • Doesn't that only work because the cold of the ice cream freezes the chocolate? And wouldn't that cold be counterproductive? OTOH, he'd already have a great jingle.
  • I suppose you could make a cast of your wang and then fill that, but then you wouldn't have the pleasure of squirting Magic Shell on it. It would also change the flavor of the dessert.
  • Make one that dispenses its own hot vanilla or hot butterscotch topping, and then, THEN you've got something.
  • i seem to recall mentioning this in another thread? i think it might help in making these chilled, creamy treats, per mct's casting suggestion...
  • Oh, I'm sorry, is this the chili & chocolate thread?
  • Once you Clone Your Bone, your partner will never be without you, even when you are away.
  • Once you Clone Your Bone, your partner will never be without you, even when you are away.
  • What if you've been through 3 weeks of intensive therapy and discovered you're completely heterosexual? What's the right candy bar for you then?
  • Twix - one bar for your public life and one for your private life.
  • Or, heh,..one bar for your... Oh, never mind...
  • I think "reformed" closet cases would be inclined to go for a Mr. Big, or possibly a Big Turk.
  • Oh, Henry!
  • Jolly Rancher
  • Lik-a-Stix
  • Bazooka Joe
  • Mr. Goodbar
  • Definitely not Mounds
  • Cracker Jack's
  • Dolly Mixtures
  • Giant Cock
  • No, I'm sorry there isn't time.
  • Well, sometimes you feel like nuts, and sometimes you don't.
  • MonkeyFilter: Please get off your high horse. MonkeyFilter: Big furor over nothing. MonkeyFilter: Well, sometimes you feel like nuts, and sometimes you don't. And I will never eat another Sinckers as long as I live. Thanks, MonkeyFilter.
  • This story was on the Daily Show last night, which makes me even more certain that there's a Monkey (or Monkeylurker) on staff there.
  • Hee hee! He's got a phallic object in his mouth!
  • That's. A. Tongue.
  • If it's his tongue, then it's too bad he's gay.
  • for you, maybe...
  • Wot's that little thing in his left fist?
  • Yes yes...we must send some to the cheese. But not that guy. He's creepy. fishette: I think that's his finger pointing to the candy bar.
  • He apologized for that. Erase erase erase!
  • Sissy-Boy Slap Party NSFW (buttocks)
  • NSFTW = Not Safe For Tighty-Whities
  • MonkeyFilter: Sissy-Boy Slap Party
  • Being in a poorly-funded theater group, I've shared dressing rooms with castmates of both genders and several sexual orientations. It's usually just one big (or not so big) room for everyone. When you've got a job to do, you get over it. I joked to one castmate's wife that I'd seen more of his underwear in the last two weeks than she had, and we all had a good laugh.
  • And for fuck's sake, can't they spend a little bit of the handred shrillion dollars a professional sports team takes in a year to build some private shower stalls?
  • I put it to you that there is one reason, and one reason alone that professional sports organizations have communal showers, despite the fact that they could afford better. The players want them. Make of that what you will.
  • It might just be a remnant thing. In junior high on, all showering is communal, (well alright, not communal as it's not co-ed), at least in public schools, so it's possible that it simply hasn't occured to them to make a demand for seperate shower space. I'd imagine you'd actually be less likely to get hit on in a communal space than in one that was or could be privatized, due simply to lack of privacy.
  • I can't say what happens behind the locker room doors of the indoor plumbing set*, but I know that I have never been in a gym, health club, YMCA or even workout room at a fancy schmancy hotel where the shower room for the guys wasn't a big, open, communal room. Just the way it's done. *unless you have a video I can borrow. Please?
  • My pool shower's have now gone semi-private, with four separate rooms of four showers each. Very well-lit and antiseptic and stuff -- a real change from the one giant room with a slippery floor where boys could soak the floor and push down their trunks and take a run and slide across the length of the room on their soapy asses. Not that I ever did...
  • From a maintenance point of view, a big open room is much much easier to keep clean. For every division you place in your shower room, you add two surfaces and two to six corners where mildew can form.
  • The women's shower situations I've encountered have been varied depending on the gym. The one I'm going tto now is communal, but the last two have had a communal plus a few stalls.
  • > The women's shower situations I've encountered Sorry, you lost me to my overactive imagination at that point. What were we talking about?
  • Chocolate bars, I think.
  • Cable TV: Being fruitful and multiplying.