C'mon, Get A Life, Round 17

A couple of gay activist groups are upset over a Super Bowl commercial, and a candymaker quickly caves to the hysteria.

A commercial for Snickers candy bars launched in the Super Bowl broadcast was benched after its maker got complaints that it was homophobic.

The ad showed two auto mechanics accidentally kissing while eating the same candy bar and then ripping out some chest hair to do something "manly." One of the alternate endings on the Snickers Web site showed the men attacking each other.

The Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation complained to the maker of Snickers, Hackettstown-based Masterfoods USA, a division of Mars Inc., which also makes M&M's and other candies. ...

Masterfoods spokeswoman Alice Nathanson issued a statement in which she said the company would stop running the ad on television and the Web site.

"As with all of our Snickers advertising, our goal was to capture the attention of our core Snickers consumer," Nathanson wrote.

Good Lord. Can't we have the least bit of a sense of humor? The commercial was funny. Get over it.

And, then there's the PR flack. "Our core Snickers consumer"? Exactly who is that? Insecure auto mechanics? If nothing, the commercial illustrates homophobes' stupidity that an accidental touching of lips could be remedy by self-mutilation.

We really have better things to focus on.

Now here's the correct way to get attention -- and show a real sense of humor.

A group of gay-marriage supporters could begin collecting signatures today for a November ballot initiative that would limit marriage in Washington to couples willing and able to have children.

The measure would also dissolve the union of those who remain childless three years after marrying.

Are they serious?

Gregory Gadow, of the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, said the group hopes to make a point by parodying a state Supreme Court ruling last year that denied gays the right to marry because, among other reasons, such unions don't further the purpose of procreation. ...

Gadow said his alliance -- whose name itself is part of the parody, forming the acronym DOMA -- is a loosely organized group of 15 or so friends. While they will work to get Initiative 957 on the ballot and passed in November, Gadow said he doesn't really want to see it enacted -- and would expect the Supreme Court ultimately to strike it down as unconstitutional.

And that's the point, he said. By striking down I-957, he believes the court would be forced to confront its decision in the gay-marriage case.

But, of course, the gay activist groups so upset over a candy commercial are nowhere to be found on this one. Could it be because there's no $18 billion company ripe for a "sensitivity" training shakedown? Jesse Jackson would be proud.