Snickers Super Bowl Commercials

The Super Bowl ads are undoubtedly one of the best loved parts of the annual American football event. Although TV commercials are things that most Super Bowl viewers would want to get rid of, advertisers and ad agencies have found creative ways of making their materials entertaining and viewer-friendly. One of the most important elements of a successful Super Bowl commercial is humor. But when humor is mixed in with offense, that’s when controversy comes in. And in 2007’s telecast, the Snickers Kissing ad was considered as the most controversial among the past Snickers Super Bowl commercials.

USA Today reported in July of 2007 that Masterfoods USA pulled out the controversial Kissing theme of their 2007 Snickers SuperBowl commercial. The TV spot showcased two men kissing unintentionally after sharing the snack bar by the mouth.

The story of the ad started with two mechanics working on a car engine. The other guy begin to take a munch of the popular snack bar, afterwards he was joined by the other guy biting the other end of the snack food. The two guys have now shared the Snickers by their mouths and by the time they ate all of the snack bar, both men ended smooching. When the two realized what had just happened, the other guy shouted “do something manly”, which caused the two mechanics to pull out strands of their chest hairs.

The pull out of the ad was made after a number of gay organizations protested that the Snickers Super Bowl ad was offensive to the gay community. The complaint further stated that the act of pulling hairs out of the chest were acts of violence against gay people. Snickers Super Bowl commercials have always been a big part of the annual American football telecast, but the recent material they had was their first spot ever to be pulled out after a few days of airing.

Spokesperson from the Masterfood USA, the makers of Snickers, commented on the complaint that they never designed the ads to offend the gay community nor convey negative campaign messages against the group. In addition, Masterfood said that their Snickers Super Bowl commercials have always been targeted to older audiences as part of their new policy of excluding the under-12-years-old market.

The company further said it was actually the public who suggested the part of the ad, which gay protesters found offensive, the ripping off of chest hairs. It was reported that before the actual airing of the ad on Super Bowl Sunday, Masterfood USA ran a special campaign on their website where internet users were given the alternative options for the ending of the commercial. The project consisted of three other alternative ending: a third guy enters the scene and asked “is there room for three on this love boat?”, the two mechanics ended up fighting using wrenches and the option where the two mechanics gulped a gallon of motor oil.

The company disclosed that they chose the “ripping off of chest hairs” as the official ending of the Snickers Super Bowl commercial because it garnered the most votes on the internet. Gay protestors insist that the company must directly apologize to the offended community. Masterfoods USA replied that they have already done what they can.

The news set a buzz of discussions by many Americans especially those who have already seen the ad. Others think it was not offensive. In fact there was even a representative of the gay community that said it was not offensive any how. Offensive or not, however, but makers of Snickers have learned their lesson. Snickers SuperBowl commercials will still be around next year.