Uber forced to edit Super Bowl ad after 'disgusted' viewers hit out at 'offensive’ and ‘dangerous’ joke
An advert for the Super Bowl has been edited after it was accused of making fun of food allergies.
One of the many, many adverts which will make up part of the Super Bowl is an Uber Eats ad featuring celebrities such as David and Victoria Beckham, as well as Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer.
Basically the point of the advert is that Uber Eats delivers a bunch of other stuff as well as food, and the ad runs through a series of skits joking that to remember that you need to forget something else.
Check out the advert:
Advert
The ad runs through scenarios which technically class as comedy in the world of advertising as a guy forgets what a chair is, the Beckhams forget which band Victoria was part of and Jennifer Aniston completely forgets working on Friends.
It's not exactly Monty Python but it does the job to tell the millions of people watching the Super Bowl that Uber Eats delivers other stuff.
However, the advert has been edited after backlash for one of the scenarios it depicted.
In one of the scenes a man is eating peanut butter out of a labelled jar while appearing to have an allergic reaction.
"There's peanuts in peanut butter? Oh it's the primary ingredient," he says in that rather hapless way in which people are often depicted in adverts.
The Super Bowl advert, and this part of it in particular, drew criticism from food allergy organisations who told Uber Eats that the health risks of an allergic reaction were 'no laughing matter'.
Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE) said they were 'incredibly disappointed' in the advert.
Others with food allergies took to social media and called the segment of the advert 'disgusting, tone deaf and completely unnecessary', as well as slamming Uber for 'perpetuating this offensive joke'.
Someone else said it was 'not so funny if you have a child with a peanut allergy' and that it was insensitive to joke about something 'life threatening'.
Another said the advert wouldn't depict 'a guy who forgets he’s diabetic and doesn’t take his insulin, or a soldier who has PTSD and forgets his medication' as that wouldn't be funny and called for the advert to be edited.
In response Uber Eats has announced that it'll be changing the advert before it goes out as part of the Super Bowl to remove the bit featuring the man with the peanut allergy.
Topics: Super Bowl, Uber
Joe Harker