A Disturbing Trend… – Part 3

I did not watch the Super Bowl this year. No one invited us to a Super Bowl party and I had no investment in either of the teams. I did however watch the Super Bowl commercials. I accidentally slept a little too long during my Sunday nap, so I stayed up late Sunday night and watched them online.

Here are two commercials that I want you to consider:

1. Bud Light Immigrant Commercial:

2. Snickers Kiss Commercial:

I happen to think both of these commercials are very funny. In my opinion they are not the funniest of the Super Bowl commercials (the careerbuilder.com commercials were probably the funniest this year). So why did I select these to blog about? Well, I selected them because of there content.

Alan (from The Assembling of the Church) and I watched these two commercials together (as well as some others). He commented that he was surprised there was not some backlash from the first commercial because of its almost racist/prejudiced nature. I think we can all agree there is some underlying racial stuff going on there. Of course that is what makes it most funny (is that wrong?). I too was surprised to not see any backlash for this commercial.

The second commercial is just funny, although I am not quite sure how ripping out your chest hair is “manly.” I am just thankful I am not that “manly” :).

So what is the point? Well, the point is that I was surprised to find out that there was some backlash for the Snickers commercial. To the point that Snickers has decided to pull the commercial altogether. Who sparked this controversy? Well the Gay community did.

Groups such as the Human Right Campaign and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) condemned the ad, saying it promoted anti-gay prejudice and condoned violence against gay Americans.

CNN Article
USA Today Article

I completely disagree that this commercial promoted any sort of anti-gay rhetoric or even violence. But I see something in this campaign against Snickers that looks very familiar. Aren’t these the same tactics we Christians have used in the past to strong arm companies into doing what we want?

Question: Is the world following our example or are we following theirs?