Animal rights activists have long protested the kind of anthropomorphism engaged in by everyone from E.B.White to Hollywood’s Kung Fu Pandas. Animals aren’t humans, they remind us, and giving them human characteristics like speech isn’t fair and can lead to poor treatment of animals, they say. But at the Super Bowl a dopey Doritos ad triggered the same kind of objections not from animal rights folks but from abortion rights people. Abortion rights group NARAL is upset about a huge multinational corporation “humanizing fetuses.” Not animals, but late stage fetuses.
#NotBuyingIt – that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless & moms as uptight. #SB50
— NARAL (@NARAL) February 8, 2016
The problem? A $5 million Doritos ad featuring a sonogram of an unborn child (or fetus or whatever the groups can agree to call it) chasing a Dorito right out of the womb (see below). The reaction brought predictable ridicule and also support. NARAL did not have any problem with Beyonce’s message, retweeting this:
Queens never fall. #PepsiHalftime #SB50 https://t.co/7WrHZ5XBWz pic.twitter.com/qmDSZTcl7h
— GIPHY (@giphy) February 8, 2016