First they came for the Snickers guys. Now Super Bowl ad objectors have taken down another spot from the big game. GM has announced that it will redo a commercial in which an assembly-line robot has a dream in which he commits suicide after dropping a bolt, after protests from a suicide-prevention group.
Let me reiterate: the suicide of a robot. In a dream.
Now, I don’t want to dismiss the concerns of the group entirely. If someone can make the case that the ad actually encouraged suicide, by all means pull it, though I would need some convincing. I have never experienced the suicide of someone close, and if I did, I suspect that the ad would stir up painful feelings. As would, I suspect, random songs on the radio, certain smells and familiar places, old photographs, and waking up in the morning. I am not certain if a TV commercial about a robot could add to that burden–but again, I do not speak from experience.
Either way, I guess it’s a pointless debate to have. Commercials are not about statements or artistic freedom, they are about moving product, and GM, like Snickers, has no reason to give people a reason not to buy their products.
These are the times we live in. It’s hard to imagine, in this day and age, how Sonny could have gone–umm, psychologically challenged?–for Cocoa Puffs.