The Out Route

A lot of people are taking offense to the above advertisement, which, it should be noted again, cost Snickers $2.5M. The peanutty company decided to pull the four-pronged campaign after complaints from just about everyone claim that the advertisements are anti-gay and have an antiquated view of sexuality. Which is true, and I'm surprised no one in the company realized that, hey, this might cause a ruffle.

I guess Snickers' counterpoint could be that these men are obviously lacking upstairs and that their homophobia is being exposed and satired. But that only works for guys like Sasha Baron Cohen, who sacrifice their lives to point out the prejudices of others. Plus, he's actually funny.

You know, I see the controversy from two sides. Yea, the ads weren't the best idea. It's completely unbelievable that this idea went from conception to production to broadcast without one person, from Snickers or their marketing firm, asking for the idea to be re-thought. But at the same time, if you can't see the difference between something really hateful and something goofy, you have no sense of humor. I'm a firm believer in the idea that if we all just learned to laugh at ourselves -- and each other -- the world would be a lot better place.

There's just one flaw in that logic. That would require the Snickers ad to be funny. Which explains my problem with commercials. It's not that their anti-gay. It's that they're, like When the Whistle Blows, designed for the lowest common denominator.