Mars Inc., Love Boat
Two blue-collar male archetypes are working under the hood of a car when one produces a Snickers bar from his front pocket and lets it hang from his mouth cigar-style. He proceeds to consume the candy bar hands-free like it's an oversized spaghetti noodle.
Reminiscent of Lady And The Tramp, one of the two mechanics notices the other's peculiar method of consumption and is tempted to bite the other end of the candy bar until he meets his friend for an inevitable "kiss" mid-Snickers.
Stunned, the two men step far away from each other. A third mechanic steps between them, flips his hair, and asks, "Is there room for three on this love boat?"
This is one of three alternate versions of an that ad premiered during the 2007 Super Bowl, and all four ads were available via the company's website. The site allowed users to vote on their "most satisfying" outcome, and this version was in second place.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) issued a press release insisting that Snickers pull the campaign, and the company responded by pulling the ads from their website.
The ad has been panned by critics, including an article by Dan Wetzel at Yahoo! Sports and a commentary by Bob Garfield at Advertising Age.
The ad earns a Equal rating because it doesn't suggest violence in response to the awkward male-on-male contact that transpired like the other versions of the same commercial do. Instead, comic relief comes in the form of a third mechanic with same-sex tendencies.
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