Good Vibrations Magazine

by Judi B.

By now I’m sure you’ve all heard about Tim Hardaway and his very public rant about “hating” gay people. Well, guess what? I hate too. I hate what has happened lately regarding sexuality and sports. Seriously, wtf is going on?

Here are some key elements of Hardaway’s public “speech:”
• I hate gay people
• I let it be known
• I don’t like to be around gay people
• It shouldn’t be in the world, and the United States

But you know what’s even worse? That same person pretending they didn’t mean it.

“I don’t hate gay people,” Hardaway said. “I’m a good-hearted person. I interact with people all the time. … I respect people. For me to say ‘hate’ was a bad word, and I didn’t mean to use it.”

That’s right, pour salt in the wound and massage it around, then add some bleach. Pretend you made a mistake, and didn’t mean for your venom to fly out of your mouth and into the heads of young, impressionable kids who may look up to you. Consider it bad judgment and then claim to respect people. That’s right, put the car in reverse at 60 mph….see how well that works.

Screeeeeeeeeech!

And then, of course, there were the Snickers commercials that aired during the Superbowl. I believe I was on my way to my kitchen for a Buffalo Wing refill when it came on.

You’ve probably heard about it, if you didn’t see it: Two guys accidentally kiss (aka, touch lips) while both are trying to eat the same Snickers bar at the same time. Then, because they are appalled and disgusted that they have “kissed” they start doing “manly” things (like ripping out their own chest hair and drinking motor oil) to counteract that “gay kiss.” In an alternate version, they actually start hitting each other with a wrench, and one closes the car hood on the other one’s head.

Hello! What kind of marketing team sat around a table and thought this was a good idea? I’d like to know!

I can see it now:

Overpaid Marketing Exec #1: “You know what I think will really speak to our audience? Homophobia! They’ll find it hilarious!”

Overpaid Marketing Exec #2: “Ha ha ha, good idea! Picture it now….families gathered around the television for the nation’s biggest televised sporting event, seeing a depiction of simulated homosexuality and then panic, disgust and violence as the response! Brilliant!”

And then…to top it off, Snickers also decided to video tape actual football players from the NFL watching the commercial, to get their reactions on camera. They aired these on their web site.

“That ain’t right,” one player says. A second player crinkles his face into absolute disgust as the guy’s kiss. The interviews with the players reacting to the gay kiss continue on and on. These are role models for kids, and they’re telling America’s kids, and rather scary adults, that two guys kissing “ain’t right.” (click link above for source).

Uh, cool. Look at those men making horrified faces at the thought of two men kissing. Can someone tell me again how this relates to a chocolate bar?

And another question: Isn’t there a commercial approval process? Did these people actually think it was okay to air? Well, looks like they did, doesn’t it?

So, it ends up that the Snickers folks pulled the ad campaign when several groups condemned the ad (such as the Human Rights Campaign and GLADD—Gay & Lesbian Alliance Again Defamation) and issued the following statement:

“We know that humor is highly subjective and understand that some people may have found the ad offensive. Clearly that was not our intent,” Masterfoods said in a statement. “As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer.”

I can’t even comment on the stupidity of that statement, really. Oh wait, I guess I can. I know a lot of people that like Snickers, and not one of them is an intolerant homophobe. Maybe Snickers *thinks* that their core consumer is the intolerant homophobe….hmmm. Do I really want to buy another Snickers bar, ever?

And, it also ends up that Hardaway was punished by being pulled from NBA activities. Don’t you just HATE when that happens, Tim?

To end on a lighter, happier note, my coworker sent me this “best gay commercials” link and I wanted to share.

And now I must go drive my Nissan to pick up some Absolut before I catch my Virgin Atlantic flight.

See, advertising works!!

By sure coincidence, Judi B. appears in the same issue of The Advocate as John Amaechi (the NBA player who came out).