RVA Mag

Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

Menu

Last Night Saw The First-Ever Super Bowl Commercial To Feature Drag Queens

|

Topics: , , , , , ,

The commercial was brought to us by Sabra Hummus and featured two RuPaul’s Drag Race alums, Miz Cracker and Kim Chi. And it aired despite the objections of conservative pressure groups.

If you’re one of the many people who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, you got yourself a bonanza last night. From Bill Murray returning to Groundhog Day once again to a Pringles ad featuring Rick and Morty, there was a lot for the pop culture lovers out there to enjoy.

But for the LGBTQ community, there was one particular standout that had the dual effect of breaking ground for representation and bumming out a lot of uptight conservatives — the Sabra Hummus commercial featuring Miz Cracker and Kim Chi from RuPaul’s Drag Race.

In a pre-released teaser, the two shared some hummus-related puns and joked about football helmets giving them helmet hair. It all seemed pretty cute and entertaining, certainly not anything for anyone to freak out about. But of course, the freakouts happened regardless.

“An ad promoting drag queens is not what we had in mind when urging the NFL to keep the Super Bowl LIV commercials and halftime entertainment family-friendly,” declared One Million Moms, the conservative group we last heard from when they flipped out about Hallmark’s adorable ad featuring a lesbian wedding. The group started a petition that was signed by over 30,000 people to get the Sabra commercial pulled from the Super Bowl lineup, which stirred up some social-media fireworks. At some point in the kerfuffle, GLAAD threw some pretty amazing shade by tweeting a screenshot of instructions for deactivating your Twitter at One Million Moms’ twitter account. Hard not to love that.

Regardless of any protestations though, the commercial aired last night either way. Sabra’s chief marketing officer, Jason Levine, defended the commercial in a statement, saying, “We’re bringing a diverse group of personalities to the table and demonstrating just how incredibly versatile, relevant and relatable hummus is today. We think we’ve got something for everyone.”

They really do. Honestly, if One Million Moms want to miss out on Sabra’s delicious hummus as a result of this, that’s more for the rest of us. Let’s just hope the conservatives don’t stop watching the Super Bowl entirely — at around halftime last night, the grocery store was almost empty, and it’d be a shame to lose the most stress-free shopping night of the year.

Top Image via Sabra Hummus

Hallmark Channel Loves the Gays, As Long As You Don’t Tell Anyone

|

Topics: , , , , ,

Due to backlash, the Hallmark Channel pulled a commercial featuring a lesbian wedding kiss… but doing so caused an even bigger backlash.

Last week yet another corporation decided to hop in line to audition for the role of this year’s Grinch. Hallmark Channel, best known for horrible but fun Christmas film marathons and reruns of The Golden Girls, decided to throw their hat in the dubious ring. When certain people complained about a commercial from wedding paper company Zola that featured a lesbian couple kissing on their wedding day, Hallmark pulled the plug.

It’s actually adorable, to the extent that any commercial can be. Watch it before we go on:

The certain people in question would be wannabe-notorious conservative advocacy group One Million Moms. You may know them from their previous attacks on Ellen DeGeneres and JC Penney’s, who also featured LGBTQ families in their marketing. They complained to Hallmark and presented a petition that ironically only featured 25,000 signatures. I suppose the other 975,000 moms were busy at Chick-Fil-A that day.

Naturally, the spokespeople for Hallmark had a contradictory answer about how the four out of six commercials from Zola were pulled due to public displays of affection – despite one of the two that remained involving PDA between a heterosexual couple.

“We are not allowed to accept creatives that are deemed controversial,” a representative from Hallmark told The New York Times. Zola heard the message loud and clear, and made it clear where they stand.

“The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing,” said Mike Chi, Chief Marketing Office of Zola to The New York Times. “Hallmark approved a commercial where a heterosexual couple kissed. All kisses, couples, and marriages are equal celebrations of love, and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”

Of course, after the news of Zola’s commercial takedown went public, Hallmark was blasted by many from the LGBTQ and ally community, including Ellen DeGeneres herself, who tweeted to the company, “What are you thinking? Please explain. We’re all ears.”

By last Sunday, Hallmark had wilted under the pressure, and released a statement saying they’d be reinstating the Zola ads.

“The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision, as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused,” Hallmark CEO Mike Perry stated. “Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision. Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands. The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials.”

Perry also added an apology, stating, “Our mission is rooted in helping all people connect, celebrate traditions, and be inspired to capture meaningful moments in their lives. Anything that detracts from this purpose is not who we are. We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused.”

Of course, the question then becomes… will they stick to this position? Or will the backlash to the backlash inspire them to flip-flop back in the direction of the One Million Moms crowd? Time will tell, but it’s hard not to be skeptical.

Once again, it seems that we can’t have nice things, even when it comes to Christmas films, which should otherwise be wholesome entertainment for literally everyone. The worst part is how unsurprising it all is.

Top Image via Zola