Thursday, March 22, 2007

That Super Bowl Snickers Commercial Wasn't Eye Candy To This Mechanic

To the editor: I read in the newspapers and also saw on the news that the Snickers TV commercial that was shown on the Super Bowl was pulled off the air because it offended gays and lesbians. I’m glad because, although I am not gay, that Snickers commercial really upset me and my co-workers (who are not gay either). To see two guys kissing is one thing I don’t need to see again in my life but that’s not what bothered me as much as when they realize what they are doing, then recoil, and to prove their manliness they tear out their chest hair and scream in agony. Stupid, right? I thought so and so did the guys at the shop and we’re not talking about the gay part because none of us are gay. We are mechanics and we wouldn’t do that – the kissing or the hair pulling part. It’s dumb.

But there it was for the whole world to see -- on the Super Bowl of all places. My wife, my son, my two daughters and my mother saw it as we have seen it before – mechanics made to look dumb and dirty. Why is it always the mechanics are the ones made to look like idiots? Always with the bad fitting dirty uniforms and ignorant expressions and bad haircuts? Is it because we work with our hands and not in fancy office buildings? Is it because we work with tools and cars and not books? (By the way, computers are one of the most important tools we use to diagnose engine problems.) Can you see lawyers working in that Snickers commercial -- or airplane pilots?? Never happen - it’s always the guys who work their hands, ‘grease monkeys ‘who are humiliated in front of the world.

The gay and lesbian population demanded the Snickers ad be taken off the air but in my mind it should have been the Auto Mechanics Union – because it made us all feel ridiculed and disrespected. And it has to stop. Do you have any idea of the education and the hours of study and textbook reading that is required to stay up on today’s sophisticated cars?

I am right with you gays and lesbians who were upset by that commercial – but you have to get behind us mechanics first because it is we who are owed the apology. Remember, Snickers commercial makers and the rest of you image makers, we can pour sugar in your gas tank and irrevocably corrode your engine in a second’s time, we can tell you your valves need to be replaced when they are fine and you wouldn’t know, we can triple charge you when you have no recourse and we can hike your gas price whenever we want – so next time be sensitive with your stereotypes just to sell your candy.

Joey the Wrench AKA Michael Mark NYCA, San Diego
To the editor: I read in the newspapers and also saw on the news that the Snickers TV commercial that was shown on the Super Bowl was pulled off the air because it offended gays and lesbians. I’m glad because, although I am not gay, that Snickers commercial really upset me and my co-workers (who are not gay either). To see two guys kissing is one thing I don’t need to see again in my life but that’s not what bothered me as much as when they realize what they are doing, then recoil, and to prove their manliness they tear out their chest hair and scream in agony. Stupid, right? I thought so and so did the guys at the shop and we’re not talking about the gay part because none of us are gay. We are mechanics and we wouldn’t do that – the kissing or the hair pulling part. It’s dumb.

But there it was for the whole world to see -- on the Super Bowl of all places. My wife, my son, my two daughters and my mother saw it as we have seen it before – mechanics made to look dumb and dirty. Why is it always the mechanics are the ones made to look like idiots? Always with the bad fitting dirty uniforms and ignorant expressions and bad haircuts? Is it because we work with our hands and not in fancy office buildings? Is it because we work with tools and cars and not books? (By the way, computers are one of the most important tools we use to diagnose engine problems.) Can you see lawyers working in that Snickers commercial -- or airplane pilots?? Never happen - it’s always the guys who work their hands, ‘grease monkeys ‘who are humiliated in front of the world.

The gay and lesbian population demanded the Snickers ad be taken off the air but in my mind it should have been the Auto Mechanics Union – because it made us all feel ridiculed and disrespected. And it has to stop. Do you have any idea of the education and the hours of study and textbook reading that is required to stay up on today’s sophisticated cars?

I am right with you gays and lesbians who were upset by that commercial – but you have to get behind us mechanics first because it is we who are owed the apology. Remember, Snickers commercial makers and the rest of you image makers, we can pour sugar in your gas tank and irrevocably corrode your engine in a second’s time, we can tell you your valves need to be replaced when they are fine and you wouldn’t know, we can triple charge you when you have no recourse and we can hike your gas price whenever we want – so next time be sensitive with your stereotypes just to sell your candy.

Joey the Wrench AKA Michael Mark NYCA, San Diego

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