http://youtu.be/FK4VzKHJmw8
NASCAR’s Super Bowl ad hasn’t gone over as well as anticipated.
As of Tuesday morning, a Change.org petition from a user named Gluten Dude had collected more than 18,300 signatures against the ad and in support of Celiac disease awareness.
The tongue-and-cheek commerical conveys a hardcore, beer-guzzling, American flag-donning, bull-riding NASCAR fan that rejects all that is “weak.” And while the ad doesn’t mention the autoimmune disease Celiac outright, it pokes fun at gluten insensitivity.
“When our idea of danger is eating gluten, there’s trouble afoot,” Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman says in the commercial.
According to Adweek, the anonymous Gluten Dude said he wanted to have the ad removed due to its insensitivity, as was GoDaddy’s ad, controversial for its “puppy mill humor.”
“NBC is running a Super Bowl ad that makes fun of those who are gluten-free. It implies that we’re soft…we’re weak…we’re part of America’s problem,” the petition reads.
An NBC spokesman said the gluten reference appeared in the 2-minute version of the ad, which is only available online and “at the viewer’s discretion.” The full version was not aired at the conclusion of the Super Bowl.
Response to the ad, the spokesman said, has been “overwhelmingly positive, but we understand that it is hard to please everyone and apologize to anyone who took offense.”
NASCAR could not immediately be reached for comment.