I’m sure someone thought this was clever. It’s not. Newsbusters pointed it out yesterday.
Whatever one thinks of the issue of gay marriage, we should agree on this: mocking someone’s religious convictions to sell soap is not cool. In fact, it’s repellent.
UPDATE: Ad Week reports it’s not real; the ad done was done on spec:
Tide has already made one commercial featuring a gay couple—it’s been airing in Canada, as Procter & Gamble considers bringing it to the U.S.. And now, an ad for Tide to Go about gay marriage has gone viral, garnering over 400,000 views on Facebook.
But the spot is actually spec work from Tiny Giant director Mark Nickelsburg.
While any spot like this from a major brand would probably do well online right now, this one successfully thwarts the viewer’s expectations—gay marriage isn’t what’s offensive here—and that certainly helps push up the view count.
P&G did not immediately responded to a request for comment. But it would be smart for Tide to use this excitement to finally roll out its current ad featuring a gay couple in the U.S.
“Gay marriage isn’t what’s offensive here,” says Ad Week. Which evidently believes traditional religious attitudes about gay marriage are what’s offensive.
Classy, Ad Week.
And there’s this explanation:
A commercial released Tuesday that poked fun at the recent same-sex marriage fight in Rowan County, Kentucky using Tide products will not air on television. The commercial, which was not backed by home goods giant Procter & Gamble, was a “spec spot,” said director Mark Nickelsburg. A spec spot is used as a resume item that commercial directors can take to potential clients, Nickelsburg said. “It’s basically to show clients what we are capable of,” he said. “It just sort of snowballed from there.” Thousands of news outlets online wrote about Nickelsburg’s ad after he posted it on Facebook Tuesday.
The commercial above is just part of a rising tide (yeah, pun intended) of ads depicting gays. There’s this sly new commercial for TDBank—an ad so subtle, in fact, a friend who saw it said, “You mean they aren’t just besties?”:
And then there’s this one, for Chobani yogurt, which is a lot LESS subtle:
Do you sense a theme? I think Mel Brooks” “The Producers” put it best:
And today we celebrate...