Super Bowl Ads Not so Offensive

Oh how I would hate to be a gay fast-food worker right now. For those of you who are, congratulations for making it through the Super Bowl.

Apparently the advertisements aired during the big game were offensive to just about everyone who breaths these days.

Company's like Nationwide Insurance, Snicker's and GM have caught plenty of flak after the big game due to their offensive ads. Snickers infuriated homosexuals, Nationwide got the fast-food workers hot under the fryer and GM had suicide prevention groups irate.

One the ads was funny, one was OK and the Snicker's ad was pretty stupid, but people need to get a grip.

We are living in a hypersensitive world and right now we all need a good kick in the knickers. Apparently that's what it's going to take for us to distinguish a joke from a deliberate, malicious poke.

For instance, most of the Super Bowl ads that were deemed offensive were jokes. Some of them were bad jokes. I don't blame anyone for being upset after Snicker's ridiculous ad, which included two men kissing after each bit the opposite end of a Snicker's and met in the middle (very much like the scene from Disney's Lady and the Tramp where the two dogs inadvertently kiss while eating spaghetti).

In the ad, the men separate from each other after the kiss and - to show their manliness - rip off chest air. Very stupid in my opinion. I was offended by the stupidity. In response to hate mail and heavy criticism to the ad, Snicker's vowed never to show it again. Good.

The GM ad included a robot that worked making cars. In the dream the robot was fired and was seen jumping off a bridge to commit suicide. Once fired, the robot worked in other fields, including the fast-food industry, before giving up and leaping from the bridge.

The ad was just a joke, albeit in poor taste. Suicide in any form usually doesn't work it's way into comedy. The criticism was justified.

The funniest ad to catch flak was the Nationwide Insurance spot that showed Britney Spears ex, Kevin Federline, going from penthouse to fast-food industry. He starts the ad in a video throwing money and surrounded by women and closes out rapping into the in-store camera. It was hilarious. It's just too bad that people with nothing better to do try to make a stink about basically anything. I can't believe someone actually complained about this. Imagine if the people offended by this commercial devoted their time to worthwhile causes. The world would be a better place.

Life doesn't have to be that serious. I don't even know how the commercial was portrayed as offensive in the first place. Is Federline not qualified to warm up pre-packaged meet? He didn't spit on any food so what's the problem.

Controversial advertising wasn't relegated to the Super Bowl. The Cartoon Network created city-wide outrage in Boston last month for its advertising campaign for the cartoon Aquateen Hungerforce by placing small advertising logos for the show throughout the city.

Someone somewhere interpreted the ads to be bombs or weapons of mass destruction and called the police, S.W.A.T. and perhaps the president. The bomb squad went in to disarm (unplug) the logos, but not before shutting down city streets and neighborhood blocks.

The ad literally looked like a big Lite Bright - the old toy. It was just light bulbs that were plugged in. The ads were barely noticed in other cities. Bostonians took offense to them, citing the terrorist attacks of 9-11. Those comments were the ones that should have caused outrage. I don't know how a big Lite Bright can come close to a terrorist attack. Anyone with common sense would have realized they were harmless. But in this post 9-11 world, you've got to be careful.

The Cartoon Network took the ads down and the network GM resigned Friday following the fiasco that cost parent company Turner Broadcasting System $2 million dollars.

If you want a successful ad it's got to be P.C. these days. So before you plug up that Lite Bright or sell that burger, just think what would a gay, fast-food worker think.