If you missed the Super Bowl last night, you may not have seen the Snickers ad that ran. From Towelroad:
It was inevitable there was going to be one lame gay joke during the Super Bowl commercials. I'm just shocked that it didn't have anything to do with Brokeback Mountain.
I wasn't too offended by the commercial itself, mainly because it makes the mechanics out to be social Neanderthals. However, take a look at the Snickers site, which features four versions of the commercial with different endings, along with players from the Colts and the Bears reacting to the commercials.
Here's the real stinker, the "Extras" at the bottom of the page. If you want to know why a football player in the NFL might be hesitant to come out of the closet, take a look at the players' reactions to the kiss. Shame on Snickers for promoting homophobia in professional sports. These are 'role models', folks!
Bears Tight End Desmond Clark: "Did they actually have to kiss like that? I hope they got paid a lot of money to do that."
I have written a letter to the Snickers company telling of my disgust. Below is that letter. If you find this as upsetting, I ask that you send a letter to the company as well. Here is their website: http://www.snickers.com/contact.asp
My letter:
In this day and age I find it morally incomprehensible that a company such as yours will allow homophobia to run rampant on your website, not to mention that when your marketing department did their research, being homophobic is key to selling our candy bars. Then to have a couple of players that show their disgust for something that I find natural baffles me. If your marketing department has not done their after Super Bowl research, you might want to check and see how many people are upset with the way your throw our lifestyle around. You may also feel that we, as gay men and women, are not important enough to your company and for that I am sorry.
If you had made fun of African Americans, Jews, Asians, or Muslims and then had someone sitting around looking disgusted by what they saw would be uncalled for and then rejected by your company. Then you take it further by airing their comments such as the comment by Bears Tight End Desmond Clark, "Did they actually have to kiss like that? I hope they got paid a lot of money to do that." How do you think it makes me feel when I hear something like that? How do you think it makes all the kids who are homosexual that have committed suicide because people feel it is alright to laugh at them and hurt them.
The gay myth that homosexuals don’t play, like, or attend sporting events is a good reason to rethink your stance. Young adults, gay or straight, look up to athletes. When these young people see their “roll models” laughing with disgust at their lifestyle, you get a certain rejection that can affect a life in such a drastic way. If you don’t believe this to be true, why did Nike sell so many shoes by using athletes as their spokesperson?
Studies have shown consistently high rates of suicide attempts by homosexual youths. Then we also have to look at “gay violence” and hate crimes. How can anyone forget Matthew Wayne Shepard who was robbed, severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die? The reason for this was the fact he was gay. The mentality that Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney, the killers, had was nothing more than homophobic bigotry.
This is the same mentality that your website is producing. It’s fun to laugh in disgust of other people’s lives. Snickers need to ask itself if this is the image that you want to project? Is this how you want people to see you? Why is hatred OK with one group of people while others cannot be touched? It should be that no group of people should ever be made fun of. We are a country that was founded on freedoms, Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. How can we be happy if the industry is creating hate filled people who only want to see us gone like Mathew Shepard?
I would like to see the website retooled or what is on there taken down. I am wondering how many gay employees work for Snickers and if they feel comfortable being out or do they feel they need to keep their personal life private for fear of retaliation from a bigoted company. Do they feel that working for a company that sees them as nothing but a joke is a good thing?
I am refusing to buy anymore of your product and have emailed everyone I know to let them know what type of homophobic company you truly are.
