Follow-up: Snickers Super (Bowl) Flop

As I originally wrote here, the "Brokeback" Snickers ad ("Mechanics") is pathetic and homophobic. It is nothing new, and I'm sure it made many people uncomfortable ... and really upset anyone who is gay. There are plenty of other ways of creating effective ads than this. As Bob Garfield writes, "Viewers can go to Snickers.com to choose their favorite ending. The vote should have come at the beginning, and it should have been No."

TBWA/Chiat/Day NY created this piece of crap (iFilm, YouTube), and Snickers paid $2.5 million to air it in the Super Bowl. Now, they've pulled it. I'd say they're a few days late making that decision.

This is what happens when (seems to be mostly traditional) agencies don't think and/or try to outsmart people on the internet. They forget that they've opened the door to the most powerful feedback mechanism ever created. They forget that saying things in meetings like, "We'll let the people take control" has consequences. They fail to think things through and are satisfied to play buzzword bingo until they get burned.

Like Edelman's recent problems with WalMart and the Chevy Tahoe create-your-own-ad debacle, at least I get another good case study for what not to do.



Snickers Scrubs Super Bowl Ad Site
by Gavin O'Malley,
LIKE ATHLETES, ADVERTISERS OFTEN RISK their necks for a winning campaign on Super Bowl Sunday. And while an ad's performance is harder to judge, one apparent loser this year was Masterfoods' Snickers brand--which has shuttered its campaign in response to criticism from gay rights groups.

Snickers' 30-second "Mechanics" spot, which depicted macho mechanics reacting badly to an unintentional kiss, quickly drew condemnation from rights groups like the Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Human Rights Campaign, which said the campaign promoted violence against gays.

Now, along with the TV spot, a microsite featuring alternate endings to the commercial and football players' reactions to them has also been taken down. In particular, "Wrench"--one alternate ending showing the mechanics beating each other with wrenches and cars' hoods after the kiss--drew criticism. "Campaigns walk on the edge to get the biggest bang," said Jupiter analyst Kevin Heisler. "That's part of the high-risk challenge advertisers face."

Some advertisers, noted Gartner Research Director Mike McGuire, might be under the false impression that anything goes online. "It's not just about connecting with your target audience," explained McGuire. "For good or ill, the Internet dramatically increases awareness and reach. That's difficult to control, and can be very dangerous."

According to a Masterfoods spokeswoman, humor was all the ads were trying to achieve. "We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent," the spokeswoman said in a statement. "Consequently, we do not plan to continue to air the ad on television or on our Snickers website."

Omnicom Group's TBWAChiatDay in New York, which designed the ad, could not be reached by press time.

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