In this Snickers commercial two auto mechanics accidently kiss while eating the same snickers bar. To make themselves feel “manly” they rip off some chest hair and scream as loud as they could. This commercial was aired during the Super Bowl and received lots of complaints. There was so much controversy because it got complaints of being homophobic.

MSNBC said, “The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation complained to the maker of Snickers, Hackettstown-based Masterfoods USA, a division of Mars Inc., which also makes M&M’s and other candies.”

They had a website featuring the ads and other versions of the men doing “manly” things. The web site also featured a video of players from the Super Bowl teams reacting to the kiss. According to MSNBC Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese said, “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.”

MSNBC also discussed other complaints like, “GLAAD spokesman Marc McCarthy said Tuesday the group believed “this kind of prejudice was inexcusable.”Masterfoods spokeswoman Alice Nathanson issued a statement in which she said the company would stop running the ad on television and the Web site. “As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer,” Nathanson wrote.

“Feedback from our target consumers has been positive. In addition, many media and Web site commentators of this year’s Super Bowl commercial line-up ranked the commercial among this year’s top 10 best." She noted that USA Today ranked it No. 9. “We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent,” she wrote.Masterfoods brands include Uncle Ben’s rice, Pedigree dog food and Whiskas cat food. It is part of Mars Inc., a family-owned company.”

This commercial received so much controversy because it doesn’t connect with Snickers large target audience. They have all sorts of consumers eating their product. So homosexuals, women, and even some men were quick to judge the commercial and get angry or offended. Before making this commercial Snickers should have thought more deeply into their organizations goals rather than making people laugh during a SuperBowl commercial. In The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott he says, “Marketing and PR people have a collective difficulty getting our departmental goals in sync with the rest of the company.” He also says, “we constantly focus on the flare-up du jour and thus always focus on the wrong thing,” and he also says, “Many marketers and PR people also focus on the wrong measures of success.” In Snickers case they focused too much on making people laugh and not enough on which of their consumers it would offend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMAvMvmSIPc

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17011630/ns/business-us_business