Snickers unloads on Mr. T with friendly fire Mars did the right thing by agreeing to pull its controversial Snickers ad that some blasted as homophobic. Not so much because it’s anti-gay, but because it insults the intelligence of the entire human race. How did AMV BBDO sell this through? “Mr. T shoots a race walker with Snickers bars from a big gun.” Dead silence. “The tagline is ‘Get some nuts.’ ” Room breaks up into raucous laughter and high-fives all around! Ah Mr. T ... it’s the ’80s every night in your dreams, and you’re still a big star. No Frankie Goes to Hollywood, though. Mars should take a page from GM’s robo-suicide playbook and re-cut the spot. The race walker can tell Mr. T, “No, you get some nuts!” They laugh and exchange respectful cheek kisses in the European version and slap each other’s butts for U.S. audiences comfortable with such manly displays of affection from watching Monday Night Football. Then they share a Snickers bar—equally, and without judgment. There’s a little something in that scenario for everyone. Now, if only Mars would pull its crappy GummiBurst Nite Flite campaign. C’mon, those ads must offend somebody! UPDATE: Check out Adweek.com’s poll on the matter (right column, scroll down). —Posted by David Gianatasio

July 25, 2008 in Gianatasio | Permalink

Comments

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Does every ad have to be a testament to us oh-so-creative ad folks?

Borrowed interest? Sure.
Outdated celebrity? Sure.
Bad pun? Sure.

Fun to watch? Sure.

As for the insult to gays, this story is frilly laced with a bit of irony.

For an organization that purports to speak for all the gay people in the world, they do their constituency no favors by saying, "Yep. That speed walker is pretty much an accurate depiction of being gay."

Maybe their spokesman is Seth McFarland, who (hyperbolically) thinks being British and being gay are pretty much the same thing.

Posted by: Sean | Jul 25, 2008 8:38:01 AM

Ditto on what Sean said. It was pretty amusing and a prime example of everyone getting their metaphorical panties in a bunch over nothing.

Posted by: Scott | Jul 25, 2008 12:36:46 PM

Ditto on what Sean said. It was pretty amusing and a prime example of everyone getting their metaphorical panties in a bunch over nothing.

Posted by: Scott | Jul 25, 2008 12:37:15 PM

This is a good spot. The walker isn't gay, he's just a wuss.

Posted by: Mason | Jul 25, 2008 2:29:52 PM

sean, scott and mason,

are you guys retarded? or just ignorant?

Posted by: Mr. T | Jul 27, 2008 2:12:46 AM

A bling coated, gun toting violent black man who is only able to resort to murder. I can't decide if Mr. T is unable to see the sterotype or if he wants to prove it.

Posted by: Steve | Jul 27, 2008 5:03:37 PM

A snickers gun is about as deadly as a t-shirt canon. Its a big stretch to say the spot stereotypes black men as being violent.

Posted by: Mason | Jul 28, 2008 6:11:51 PM

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