Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day in both football and advertising—and 2007 continued an increasingly annual tradition of introducing gay-themed ads. But an elaborate same-sex kiss campaign from Mars Inc. for Snickers candy bar suffered an immediate meltdown after the gay community's opposition.
Meanwhile, Revlon Consumer Products Corp. aired an ad featuring pop star Sheryl Crow and her hair stylist, an effeminate man who gets upset when he's been replaced by Revlon Colorist hair color. At $2.6 million for 30 seconds, the one-minute spot by Endeavor cost roughly $5 million just to air. It ranked second-to-last in USA Today's Ad Meter online poll.
In a post-Queer Eye for the Straight Guy world, advertisers have become increasingly comfortable with including effeminate or openly gay men as best friends or stylists in commercials targeting women, including Unilever's Sunsilk campaign that uses the flamboyant voice of Mario Cantone as well Queer Eye's Kyan Douglas and Thom Filicia pitching for L'Oreal and Pier 1, respectively.
In the Snickers spot that aired during the first half-hour of the game on CBS, two Neanderthal-like auto mechanics work on an engine next to each other, and one shoves a chocolate bar into his mouth. Jealous, the other simply starts chomping on the other end of the bar. The two competitively eat feverishly from each end until their lips meet and they 'accidentally' kiss, Lady and the Tramp-style. Suddenly concerned, the two men decide they must do something 'manly' to make up for the moment—and each pulls out a fistful of his own chest hair.
There were three alternative endings that visitors to the Snickers site were to vote on at AfterTheKiss.com . One, 'Love Boat,' tries to be accepting as a third mechanic shows up and asks, 'Is there room for three on this love boat?' The others showed negative responses: In one, the two men violently beat each other up, while the other had them swallowing motor oil and windshield fluid to cleanse their mouths.
Online voters ironically had the version that aired during the Super Bowl in last place, while the 'Love Boat' version was second only to the motor-oil version. The winner was to be aired during the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18.
The company's Web site also offered reactions from the game's Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears, who were mostly repulsed by the kiss. Michele Kessler, VP of marketing at Mars unit Masterfoods, was quoted in an advance press release as saying, 'Their reaction was exactly what we anticipate on game night—lots of laughs.'
The primary target audience of the campaign was young men ages 18 to 24, and it was the first time Mars aired a Super Bowl ad since 2001.
Gerry Graf—executive creative director at the ad agency that created the campaign, Omnicom Group's TBWAChiatDay—said in the press release, 'We wanted something that would get people talking during—and after—the game.'
The agency and client succeeded in getting people talking, but not in the way they anticipated.
Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign ( HRC ) stated, 'This type of jeering from professional sports figures at the sight of two men kissing fuels the kind of anti-gay bullying that haunts countless gay and lesbian school children on playgrounds all across the country.'
Mars, a privately held company based in McLean, Va., also has a very low rating from HRC for its company policies: 6 out of 100.
Within hours after a unanimous outcry among gay bloggers and major community organizations condemned the campaign as 'anti-gay,' Mars took down the page with ads and NFL player commentary.
'We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent,' read a company statement after the page removal. 'Consequently, we do not plan to continue to air the ad on television or on our Snickers Web site.'
The ad was ranked ninth in the game by both USA Today visitors and IAG Research, but was widely panned by ad critics. Bob Garfield of Advertising Age called it one of the game's 'biggest blunders' and Dan Wetzl of Yahoo Sports named it a 'loser.' However, Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.com dismissed much of the gay community's response as 'overreacting.'
Like many companies, Mars has a history of using gay themes in its commercials. In 2004, a spot for M&M and Shrek also deals with a potential kiss between two of the 'male' candies, but the other walks away saying, 'That's not gonna happen.'
USA Today reported that Alice Nathanson, a spokeswoman for Masterfoods, said the company declined to specifically apologize, noting, 'We've done what we can.' However, she added, 'We always look at lessons learned. We'll be doing that with this.'
Wilke is executive director of Commercial Closet Association and has written for Advertising Age, Adweek and The New York Times. Over 3,000 LGBT-themed ads going back to 1917 can be found at www.commercialcloset.org .
