Essay 1673

Admen behaving badly in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Snickers became the first major advertiser in 2007 to offend via cultural cluelessness — and the candy company did it during the Super Bowl to boot. Eat your hearts out, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. It started with a spot depicting two men who accidentally kiss while sharing a Snickers bar, then prove their manliness by pulling out their own chest hair (click on the essay title above to view it). Brilliant. The Snickers website later offered three alternative endings for the commercial, allowing visitors to vote for their favorite. However, gay and human rights groups pressured Snickers officials to end the madness. “That Snickers, Mars and the NFL would promote and endorse this kind of prejudice is simply inexcusable,” said GLAAD President Neil Giuliano. “We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent,” said parent company Masterfoods in a statement. “As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer.” Guess the core Snickers consumer is a homophobic jackass. All the work has been pulled from the website, and the spot will no longer air. Kudos to advertising agency TBWA/Chiat/Day New York for producing the mess. The New York City Human Rights Commission should check into the shop’s record on hiring gays and lesbians. Or have the Queer Eye team visit Lee Clow — he could use a makeover.