Posted on 02/11/2016 7:33:47 AM PST by Kaslin
In a day when the most innocuous thing can quickly become political, a Doritos Super Bowl commercial has upset some people who want abortion to be an unrestricted right.
For those taking a bathroom break or watching "Downton Abbey" instead of the football game, here's the scenario. A pregnant woman is receiving a sonogram in her hospital bed. The screen shows the baby. The father is snacking on Doritos and he notices the child's arms moving in the direction of the chip, as dad takes it from the bag and puts it in his mouth. Finally, the baby can stand it no longer and emerges from the womb to grab his own chip.
It's funny and most people took it as a creative way to get attention for the product, which is why advertisers paid up to $5 million for a 30 second ad on television's most watched sporting event.
The humor was lost on some. One with a Twitter address (at)NARAL (for the National Abortion Rights Action League) wrote: "(hashtag)NotBuyingIt -- that (at)Doritosad using (hashtag)antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses and sexist tropes of dads as clueless and moms as uptight."
Humanizing fetuses? Just what does that sonogram image show if not a human? It certainly isn't beer, which also occupied expensive commercial space during the game.
As for "dads and moms," can one be a dad or mom before a child is born, or only after birth? And if the woman decides to abort the baby, even as he or she emerges from the womb, do the adults instantly revert to their previous status as non-dad and non-mom? At what point does society, or feminism, convey parenthood on an adult, or humanness on a baby?
In addition to scientific advances that allow babies to survive at earlier periods of gestation, pro-choicers most fear the sonogram, precisely because it shows an image whose humanness cannot be denied. Having spoken at numerous pregnancy help centers, I have heard many women thinking of having an abortion testify that seeing a picture of their baby changed their minds.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, "...13 states require verbal counseling or written materials to include information on accessing ultrasound services. Twenty-five states regulate the provision of ultrasound by abortion providers. Three states mandate that an abortion provider perform an ultrasound on each woman seeking an abortion and requires the provider to show and describe the image. Ten states mandate that an abortion provider perform an ultrasound on each woman seeking an abortion, and require the provider to offer the woman the opportunity to view the image. Nine states require that a woman be provided with the opportunity to view an ultrasound image if her provider performs the procedure as part of the preparation for an abortion. Six states require that a woman be provided with the opportunity to view an ultrasound image."
There are laws requiring labels on things we buy at the supermarket, informing us of the amount of calcium, sodium, sugars in each product -- information considered important. There are laws requiring that certain information be given to a person seeking a bank loan, buying a house or car and before surgery.
Showing a pregnant woman a picture of what is growing inside her results in a more informed decision.
Once, in a debate with a pro-choice advocate, my opponent said by advocating for mandatory sonograms I was implying that women aren't smart enough to figure these things out on their own.
"Fine," I responded. "Then remove the labels from bottles and cans, do not provide information about a bank loan, and tear the sticker from the car at the dealership because women should be smart enough to figure these things out on their own."
If just one pregnant woman contemplating an abortion saw that Doritos commercial and decided to allow her "human" to live, the company, perhaps unwittingly, will have performed a vital service unrelated to the number of chips it sells.
I thought it funny. Better than last year with the dog burying the cat.
It was a great commercial. About as passive aggressive as you could get.
The abortion crowd: the murderers who’d bitch if they were hung with a new rope
It is one of the funniest SuperBowl commercials ever. Why can’t people sometimes just have a good laugh?
Being angry is a good sign. They still have some sense of shame, some defensiveness.
The mom was “uptight”? I guess she was supposed to be dancing a jig around the hospital room when about to give birth? Liberalism truly is a mental disease.
I see a certain shallowness of NARAL objecting to men being portrayed as clueless buffoons. That trope has been around forever without a peep from the feminist left and men are routinely shut out of the abortion decision-making process.
Doritos is lovin it, that four days after the Super Bowl, their product is still being talked about with great passion!
The best part is, the publicity is free.
I like the ad. A group of people had to be brave enough to make it happen.
Left wing, liberal, socialist, pinko commie geeks do not have any sense of humor.
Your image of “The Mom dancing a jig when about to give birth” gave me my first laugh of the day!
She’s just a wee leprechaun in labor, and the hospital food is magically delicious!
A happy accident that a Doritos ad could do so much for the pro-life argument. Humanizing a fetus...another way of stating the self-evident.
Because the left always looks for things that hurt them emotionally. To them, everything has to be vanilla.
NARAL is upset because they feel the commercial humanized the fetus. Well guess what - a fetus is human. I’ve never heard of a single case where a woman gave birth to anything other than a human being.
Not in the sense at all of the abortion issue, but just the thought of a baby squirting out onto a floor. Each to their own I guess.
Hate can certainly be very strong. But it also has a tendency to drive bad decisions and overreach.
I once had a high-level Conservative activist tell me “never get angry ... unless it’s on purpose”. Great advice, and the same thing applies to hate.
In this case NARAL is looking like a bunch of overzealous freaks and morons. It’s serving to undermine whatever credibility and stature they had in the debate.
I didn’t see the commercial, but good for Doritos - it sounds like it was a very funny commercial, one that actually told you what the product was.
That said, Walmart’s generic nacho cheese corn chips are better, and not much more than half the price.
Exactly, just like a dog doesn’t give birth to a duck
Link it is worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZnBpmZXBms
Great one! Hurts when you think what has transpired but funny in the sequence of events.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.