Snickers Bars Not Gay Friendly. Cheetos Next Snackbrand To Bash Alternative Lifestyles.

If you watched the Super Bowl, you most likely watched the commercials, too. And if you most likely watched the the commercials, too, then you probably remember the Snickers Kiss. Two manly men eating a Snickers bar accidentally kiss in the process, followed by the ripping of chest hair in order to prove their said manliness. Funny commercial, right? WRONG!



After a number of organizations representing the gay community doth protested, Snickers promised to never run the ad again. Yet according to this USA Today story, the gay community is divided on whether or not the ad was offensive. Cyd Zeigler, who founded Outsports.com, a sports website that caters to the gay community, thought nothing of it. On the other hand, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was outraged, saying "Mars needs to apologize for the deplorable actions of its Snickers brand." Which, incidentally, is my favorite quote of the year thus far.*

Fortunately, in the Web 2.0 Age, we have dozens of video websites where this commercial will live on and on and on, doing what Snickers would have had to pay millions for were they to air the spot on their own. So if anything, this kind of publicity only serves to heighten my cravings for Snickers brand candy bars, deplorable though their actions may be. America seems to agree, with web site visits to Snickers.com up 1478% (though to be fair, a good number of those hits were redirects from afterthekiss.com, the website Snickers pulled that was to continue the saga of the Kiss online).

Snickers has yet to apologize for the ad, and many people aren't happy with their decision. But if all else fails, and Snickers sticks to their guns, at least they'll have frat boys, mechanics and the Christian Right. Not bad for market share if you ask me.


*'Deplorable' used in reference to the actions of a candy bar? Now that's great rhetoric.