No One Snickers At Homophobia
Many of you might be familiar with the known phrase “There is no such thing as bad press” — but is that still true?
More and more companies are unfortunately learning firsthand that this, in fact, is certainly not the case.
The idea that all press is good press is outdated and out of fashion––it used to be true that companies were happy if they were being talked about, regardless of the content. But today, consumer decisions are heavily swayed by the talk on the street, and a PR scandal can cause a true nightmare for a company.
Snickers is one such company that learned this lesson the hard way.
During a popular and funny ad campaign that ran for a few months all over the world, Snickers made a bad call with one of the ads in Spain.
The campaign idea featured a character that appears to be out of place, but after eating a snickers bar, the person transforms into the “right one,” in which they seem to finally fit in. The closes with the caption, “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
The commercials were generally a big hit as they featured celebrities and depicted funny situations.
However, the campaign that ran in Spain was hit with an enormous amount of criticisms and backlash for being homophobic.
The storyline on that particular campaign was of a Spanish influencer Aless Gibaja, depicted as a flamboyant gay guy, who turns into a rugged, bearded man with a low voice, after eating his Snickers bar. The ad was criticized for being homophobic and leaving the message that a flamboyant gay guy certainly is not acting like his true self. Aless’s character is portrayed as the incorrect portrayal of a “real man.”
The public responded by boycotting the brand and spreading the word on social media. Thousands of people tweeted about the incident and many Spanish influencers got involved — voicing their own opinions.
Spain’s equality minister even got involved, citing the ad as insensitive and intolerant.
After Snickers received a barrage of negative feedback, the brand issued an apology for the “miscommunication” and stopped streaming the video. They apologized immediately and removed the video from all streaming sites as well.
In order to avoid issues like this in the future, advertisements should be screened and brought before a panel that can try to determine if there are any racial, sexual, or political insensitivities in each advertisement. In an era in which the world has become more aware of political correctness, it is imperative that brands don’t inadvertently miss obvious insensitivities.
Snickers, albeit issuing an apology, did not seem to go far enough to dispel the negative associations that were created with this ad campaign. The biggest problem is that this was not the first time that Snickers has created a homophobic ad campaign–in 2007 the Snickers Super Bowl ad displayed two male car mechanics who “accidentally kiss.” Immediately after the kiss, one of the men says “Quick, do something manly!” and begins stripping down to display his “manly” body. This ad was also tasteless and sparked controversy.
Snickers can’t make this mistake again! They need to take every measure imaginable to ensure that their content is appropriate and tasteful before dispelling it out to the public.
Because we all know the rule: Three strikes and you’re out!
