NARAL (the lovely abortion people) rips Doritos for 'humanizing fetuses' in Super Bowl ad

By Dan Calabrese —— Bio and Archives February 8, 2016

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

Chances are you saw the ad unless you had gotten up to get more Doritos. Then again, maybe you're one of those weird people who does your business during the game and sits down to watch the ads. Anyway, just in case you missed it, here you go: For the record, I thought this may have been the year when the whole idea of the Super Bowl ad collectively jumped the shark. They mostly followed a pattern of celebrity appearances, lots of chaos, lots of bigness and some sort of unlikely thing going on (animals talking, etc.). It's neither here nor there to me because I actually tune in to see a football game, but as the commercials went this year, this one was actually somewhat more on the conventional side - drawing your focus as it does to the actual product rather than getting you to say, "I really don't see the appeal of Amy Schumer" and then asking others in the room if they can remember what the commercial was for.

But that's me. Never let it be said that the fine folks at the National Abortion Rights Action League will let an opportunity slide by to get their knickers in a twist, and the certainly didn't waste any time last night:

#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

Insecure people always act like this. Any suggestion of a worldview that doesn't agree with theirs, even a humorous one (in fact, often, especially that), brings about an angry bitter reaction because they're terrified people might nod their heads and enjoy the joke. Ultrasounds especially terrify the abortion crowd because, as they become more sophisticated and clear, they make it harder for anyone to deny that a fetus is a human being - which, of course, is the point of NARAL's little snit here. I actually didn't think it was a very good commercial, to be honest. All the actors are terrible and just because the final moment is supposedly shocking doesn't mean it sells the product. (And I'll confess my bias here: I can't stand Doritos. Your preferences may vary and thus the world goes 'round.) But if the point of a Super Bowl commercial is to get everyone talking about it, NARAL couldn't have done Doritos a bigger favor than to let loose with its petulant little tweet, because we're all sure talking about it now, aren't we?