02/21/2007
Homophobic Nestle Milo Ad Airs in New Zealand
The Nestle company has received complaints about an ad currently running in New Zealand, which I downloaded from their website and upload to you here.
The ad lit up a message board at GayNZ.com with complaints:
“My view however is that It's clearly playing on the homophobic attitudes of some people and shouldn't be on air,” types one poster. Another says “it’s a homophobic advertisement and should be pulled. What else can it be?”Other typers were less annoyed. “Is this REALLY the best we have to expend our efforts on?” asked one message board regular. Another opined: “it's not a gay kiss, it's just a guy kissing his mate and his mate doesn't like it. I don't think that it's homophobic anymore than children would go 'ewww, gross' at kissing each other were they opposite sex.
“But saying that, it shows that media is getting pretty gutsy at pushing these boundaries and I think that we should beware that indeed soon same-sex kissing isn't portrayed as 'uncool'.”
It's interesting looking at it in the context of the Snickers ad, which essentially sent the same message and inspired the same arguments on both sides from folks reacting to it. Homophobia, however, is learned behavior, and imho all this teaches kids is that a male showing affection to another male is a bad thing.
Posted 9:15 AM EST by Andy Towle in Advertising, New Zealand, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
I don't find the reaction to the kiss offensive. The guy actually looks pretty dumbstruck. What is offensive is the voiceover that says "That's not cool."
Not as offensive as the Snickers ad, but not "cool" either.
Posted by: Jonathon | Feb 21, 2007 9:52:59 AM
I agree. The commercial content is not offensive, but that voice over is wretched and the only thing NOT cool about the spot.
BTW: I loved the Jimmy Kimmel knock off of the Snickers commercial for "Three Musketeers". Perfect!
Posted by: Rad | Feb 21, 2007 10:01:29 AM
Andy, you know I love you...
however, I don't find this blip offensive. It's just a mate pecking his friend who is like 'whoa', but not homophobic.
Nestle does need to be more careful I will agree .
Posted by: Andrew | Feb 21, 2007 10:12:43 AM
Yes, the entire commercial is adorable until it gets to that "This is not cool" line. It ruined what could have been something very special. What a shame. The line is indeed homophobic.
Posted by: Patrick | Feb 21, 2007 10:17:53 AM
I agree. This one is actually worse than the Snickers ad because of the voice-over. Without it, it's just a guy who's taken aback by a kiss. And besides, everybody knows that gays are DEFINITELY cool these days.
Posted by: Cyd | Feb 21, 2007 10:26:00 AM
Are you kidding? Homophobic? The guy doesn't want to be kissed by his friend and we're screaming Homophobic?
Me thinks we need more stories demonstrating the heroics of Ricky Martin and others of his stature and ilk if this is the best you can do.
Pull your shorts out of your crack and give us a freakin break.
Posted by: Psychedelic Pariah | Feb 21, 2007 10:43:51 AM
As much as I wasn't so convinced about the Snickers ad, I'd have to agree that this commercial IS very homophobic, and even more so dangerous..here's my reasons:
1) The idea of making this simple kiss being recieved with such a dumbfounded expression is quite shocking!!! - And what's more them making the kiss as both the suspense & star of the ad, only to condemn it at the end leaves the viewer with rather traumatic feeling afterwards. ie It's as if we're being tricked into watching something we think as perfectly innocent, only to be told that what we just witnessed was an agression of one boy towards another. It makes you feel used and angry!
2) The fact that this commercial is starring kids unto whom these adult feelings are projected is also troubling: as children we all kissed and hugged our friends without thinking twice about it - and to see a commercial attempting to make affection between boys as "agression" or "uncoolness" is dangerous for all (straight,bi,gay). The very last place males are still allowed to show affection without the stigma of homophobia is a playfield, that should not be taken away.
3) And yes, that voice coming at the end and summing up what we just saw as "that's not cool" - just confirms the ad's intent in trying to communicate a strong and sinister message to kids buying their product.
Nestle Milo should be recieving a lot of angry letters.
Posted by: Da | Feb 21, 2007 10:54:16 AM
I'm getting rather sick of this reaction that pops up every time someone suggests some action - or even points out something of interest, like this clip - in the gay community:
"Is this REALLY the best we have to expend our efforts on?"
The implication is that the writer is just SO busy with all the other, superior efforts that something like [fill in the blank] just doesn't merit his or her concern.
I suspect that this is not really the case...
People should feel free to pick their battles. There are, unfortunately, a lot of battle fronts facing gays these days. Every little bit can help.
And I tend to agree with most of the posters - the voiceover ruins the ad. I know the point of the commercial is the "cool/not cool" thing, so without the voiceover the ad would not have been made. But I love the idea of the ambiguous ending without the voiceover.
Posted by: tonyg | Feb 21, 2007 10:58:58 AM
Having been to Aotearoa many times all of my life I find this advert rather odd. All of my male NZ friends, straight and gay, do not hesitate about hugging and a peck on the cheek. Some in fact even go to kissing on the lips, and there is no sexual connotation to it whatsoever.
This sort of advert is more postured towards the Aussies and not the Kiwis. Blokes in the land of the Silver Fern couldn't give a toss.
Posted by: Gary | Feb 21, 2007 10:59:03 AM
Oh, come on; it's an (admittedly adorable) adolescent screwing up his face at a kiss from a playmate. Boys do that when girls kiss them too, or haven't you seen that?
On my homophobe scale, it only rates a 1 out of 5.
Posted by: mymymichl | Feb 21, 2007 11:03:42 AM
I just sent this complaint letter to Nestle. I hope I articulated the problem well enough...
"To whom this may concern, I just came across your New Zealand Nestle MILO commercial. I'm disappointed that no one in your institution recognized the homophobic nature of its message. While your company may support the notion that same sex individuals sharing a kiss is not cool, I think your capitalizing on a homophobic idea is really what's uncool. Messages like this foster anti-gay bullying. Your think-tanks are clearly inadequate since this is the kind ad Nestle will pass. Maybe Nestle needs to add GLBT representatives to company processes in order to not blunder so badly in the future. Regards, David M"
Posted by: David M | Feb 21, 2007 11:09:38 AM
Considering that there are salaried gays around town who (supposedly) deal with homophobia in the media, the argument that we do not have the time or the money to waste on a possibly not-so-homophobic ad is absurd.
The voice-over is homophobic.
Posted by: jmg | Feb 21, 2007 11:15:01 AM
I'm just rather dumbfounded that the best they could come up with to counter the "cool" Milo is an "uncool" gay kiss. Really?
Posted by: David | Feb 21, 2007 11:26:28 AM
I'm just sorry that Nestle was unable to spend all of their 3rd world baby formula profits on an advertising team with more imagination.
Clearly the kisser was only copying his role model, Rinaldo. In some countries, this commercial wouldn't even make sense which is a definite clue it is playing on some cultural stigma.
Now to the important thing: which one was Milo?
Posted by: Steve | Feb 21, 2007 11:29:09 AM
As with so many things, it all comes back to "the eye of the beholder," and the importance is NOT the post closet type queens who show up here as predictably as ants at a picnic to blah, "It doesn't offend me....They can call me...say anything about me they want. It just rolls off my back....I just blow them a kiss and keep going."
Well, Bitches, it's not about YOU. It's about how hoi homophoboi, as it were, perceive having their bigotry reinforced; it's how their straight-ready-to-pounce-like-jackals-on-anyone-"different" kids perceive it; and it's about how emerging gay kids are taught to perceive themselves as mocked and demonized by everyone not like them. It's about, as Andy put it, the way homophobia, like all forms of bigotry are taught, modeled, reinforced.
You don't hear Little Brown Shirts In Training say, "Eeew, that's so Catholic!" or, "Eeeew, that's so Black!" They spurt, "That's so gay!" equating the very concept as repulsive, sometimes even before they know it's literal meaning. When my 10-year old cousin referred to someone as a faggot, I asked him what a faggot was and he couldn't tell me. But he KNEW it signified "bad," "laugable," "repulsive," and would have carried those connotations with him to the day he associated it with homosexuality—had I not advised him otherwise. Imagine if this commercial had been made with a BLACK GIRL kissing a white boy, getting that reaction, and the voice over declaring, "This is not cool!"—making the racial difference solely the point as much as gender sameness is here. Of course, they wouldn't DARE do that. We must rattle their safe little, billion dollar cages until they no longer dare do such lessons in bigotry as this either!
Posted by: Leland | Feb 21, 2007 11:31:25 AM
The only way it seems that one could view this commercial as not homophobic is if one is watching it on a computer with not speakers. TURN ON THE SOUND! The voice (that says a same sex kiss is uncool but the Milo is cool) is absolutely homophobic.
If the commercial was exactly the same except one of the girls planted the kiss, would the voice over "That's not cool" make any sense? Methinks not.
It only works if it's homophobic, so wake up all you who think it's not offensive.
Posted by: Gregg | Feb 21, 2007 11:34:24 AM
I have come to the realization that you guys just do not understand advertising. Watch that commercial closely. The boy scores and then is hugged by a female teammate, and then kissed by a male teammate. If you watch closely, the boy is obviously wanting that female teammate to kiss him, but then the boy does it instead. That is what "isnt cool". Not that a boy just happened to kiss him. Its that a boy kissed him instead of the girl he wanted to.
Posted by: Chris | Feb 21, 2007 11:35:33 AM
Actually Chris...I just watched the commercial again (twice) to see your point, and it just isn't there. If that was the intent of the ad, they certainly went beyond subtle in relaying that. It is obvious the reference of "not cool" was the male on male kiss, not the fact that the girl didn't kiss him.
Posted by: Patrick | Feb 21, 2007 11:47:27 AM
Wow Chris - that's some pretty fine motivational gymnastics you're performing.
If there is one thing to "understand" about advertising, it's that most of the audience is only half-watching. Subtlety, and the kind of (imagined) subtext you're talking about would go right over the head of most viewers.
It's about the same sex kiss, plain and simple.
Posted by: Gregg | Feb 21, 2007 12:00:49 PM
"I have come to the realization that you guys just do not understand advertising."
Posted by: Chris |
Oh r'ly? Please help.
Seriously though Chris, I haven't seen a single indication from this clip that this boy is pursuing the girl or aiming to kiss her (in fact he seems to push her away)...and if you see that it might mean you're assuming that every teenage boy is dreaming about being kissed by a girl on the playing field. Which contradicts even reality..
Posted by: Da | Feb 21, 2007 12:00:58 PM
I think you're just blind. And even if it is the male on male kiss, gay people need to realize that to a straight guy, another boy kissing you is not cool. Its no different than if the hot girl hugged him and walked away, and then an "ugly betty" style girl planted one on him. Its unwanted attention that is not cool.
Posted by: Chris | Feb 21, 2007 12:03:11 PM
Definitely sending out a hateful/homophonic message to impressionable teens. NOT acceptable.
Posted by: moi | Feb 21, 2007 12:08:45 PM
Sorry, should have been "homophoBic".
Posted by: moi | Feb 21, 2007 12:10:39 PM
What does the boy do after the other boy kisses him? Does he throw up in disgust? No, he looks after the girl who just ditched him! You people are blind!
Posted by: Chris | Feb 21, 2007 12:10:52 PM
CHRIS: "Its unwanted attention that is not cool."
Exactly. This commercial wouldn't run with the Ugly Betty scenario you laid out because it wouldn't be considered "edgy" and funny. This commercial relies on the cache of homophobia.
Not trying to pick on you in particular. I'm just amazed that people can claim that this is anything other than homophobic.
Posted by: Gregg | Feb 21, 2007 12:15:08 PM