This year’s crop of commercials for America’s most famous football game sank to a new low when it comes to exploiting animals in the name of a laugh. A Skechers ad celebrated greyhound racing and was filmed at a park infamous among dog advocates for its neglect of animals, and a Doritos ad implied that a dog has killed a cat.
In the Doritos ad, a man sees his dog burying a cat collar in the yard. He looks up and sees a sign depicting a missing cat wearing the same collar. The dog bribes the man with a small bag of Doritos emblazoned with a sticky note that says, “you didn’t see nuthin.” In the next scene, the man is inside and a woman asks him if he’s seen the missing cat; the camera then pans to the dog waiting outside, holding another bag of Doritos.
Nohl Rosen, a longtime cat lover, saw the commercial, and he’s ready to bury his Doritos in the litterbox.
“I was absolutely horrified,” he said. “I’m appalled that someone would think it’s amusing to abuse an animal. That killing a cat is amusing. It’s not amusing to me.”
Cat lovers across the Internet agree with him. I’ve been seeing appalled and angry messages all over Facebook. And I don’t blame them.
I didn’t see the commercial until this morning, when I watched it as part of my research for this post. I avoid the Stupor Bowl like the plague, and I was busy watching the Toilet Bowl, a marathon of bathroom renovation shows, on the DIY network.
Maybe the makers of the Doritos commercial thought it was cute and funny, but really, it just plain sucks. And to make a joke of killing a cat? Yeah. Not the least bit hilarious.
What kind of nastiness are the “creative geniuses” at America’s ad agencies going to come up with next?
TV commercials are a fact of life, and there are plenty of ways to make funny and engaging ads without dishonoring the lives of animals. Rumor has it that the Doritos commercial cost $20 to produce — I don’t know if this is true, but to glorify the slaughter of a cat for 20 bucks makes me sick.
Rosen isn’t just fuming quietly in the privacy of his own home. He’s launched a petition to get the Doritos ad off the air. As of this morning, it has 1,888 signatures. It’ll have 1,889 once I’m done writing this post!
