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A chocolate advert featuring A-Team star Mr T has been pulled off air after being dubbed 'homophobic'.
The Snickers commercial was made by the same agency responsible for a Heinz Deli Mayo ad banned last month showing two men kissing.
But while that advert was pulled for causing offence with its scenes of homosexual intimacy, the latest one has suffered for the opposite reason.
It featured Mr T firing Snickers bars at a speed walker while yelling that he was a 'disgrace to the man race'.
Although the ad, which premiered in the UK on July 13, was never shown on American television it prompted a slew of complaints from the US claiming that it victimised gay people.
During the commercial, Mr T - who played B.A. Baracus in the 1980s show The A-Team - pulls up in a monster truck alongside a man exercising in tight yellow shorts and yells: 'Speed walking. I pity you fool. You are a disgrace to the man race. It's time to run like a real man.'
He then forces the man to break into a sprint by taking pot shots at him with a Snickers machine gun.
Although the Advertising Standards body received only two complaints regarding the Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO-made commercial in the UK, it caused controversy across the Atlantic.
US advertising magazine Human Rights Campaign wrote an open letter to the parent company Omnicom.
It criticised Mars for condoning 'the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable but humorous.'
Meanwhile Mars said the advert was intended to be humorous and has terminated the campaign.
A spokesman said: 'This ad is the second in a series of UK Snickers ads featuring Mr T, which are meant to be fun and have been positively received in the UK.
'However we understand that humour is highly subjective, and it is never our intention to cause offence. Accordingly, we have pulled the Mr T speed walker ad globally.'
The workplace director of Human Rights Campaign Daryl Herrschaft said: 'HRC applauds Mars for taking swift and appropriate action.'
Meanwhile reaction in the UK was mixed amongst the gay community concerning the ban.
The Snickers commercial was made by the same agency responsible for a Heinz Deli Mayo ad banned last month showing two men kissing.
But while that advert was pulled for causing offence with its scenes of homosexual intimacy, the latest one has suffered for the opposite reason.
It featured Mr T firing Snickers bars at a speed walker while yelling that he was a 'disgrace to the man race'.
Although the ad, which premiered in the UK on July 13, was never shown on American television it prompted a slew of complaints from the US claiming that it victimised gay people.
During the commercial, Mr T - who played B.A. Baracus in the 1980s show The A-Team - pulls up in a monster truck alongside a man exercising in tight yellow shorts and yells: 'Speed walking. I pity you fool. You are a disgrace to the man race. It's time to run like a real man.'
He then forces the man to break into a sprint by taking pot shots at him with a Snickers machine gun.
Although the Advertising Standards body received only two complaints regarding the Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO-made commercial in the UK, it caused controversy across the Atlantic.
US advertising magazine Human Rights Campaign wrote an open letter to the parent company Omnicom.
It criticised Mars for condoning 'the notion that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is a group of second class citizens and that violence against GLBT people is not only acceptable but humorous.'
Meanwhile Mars said the advert was intended to be humorous and has terminated the campaign.
A spokesman said: 'This ad is the second in a series of UK Snickers ads featuring Mr T, which are meant to be fun and have been positively received in the UK.
'However we understand that humour is highly subjective, and it is never our intention to cause offence. Accordingly, we have pulled the Mr T speed walker ad globally.'
The workplace director of Human Rights Campaign Daryl Herrschaft said: 'HRC applauds Mars for taking swift and appropriate action.'
Meanwhile reaction in the UK was mixed amongst the gay community concerning the ban.
It just goes to show ex negro's can turn good.
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