Doritos commercial “anti-choice”?

On Super Bowl Sunday my family and I gave in to the national ritual of a Super Bowl party, after my dad gave the NFL some credit for getting nearly an entire nation to gather and party for a football game they don’t even necessarily care about (we sure didn’t). But nonetheless, we all went to my aunt’s house to “kind of” watch the game but more likely to enjoy the famous Super Bowl commercials. The primetime $170,000 per second ads that made us go to the bathroom during the game so as not to miss any of them.

One of the first ones that got a room full of laughs was the Doritos commercial involving a baby on an ultrasound reaching for the chips his or her dad was snacking on:

Quite a brouhaha erupted when NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) took to Twitter during the Super Bowl to complain about a fetus being “humanized.” They tweeted:

#NotBuyingIt- that @Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless and moms as uptight. #SB50

I’m sorry, but what?! The point of this commercial was to feature a light-hearted endorsement of just about everyone’s — including unborn babies! — favorite snack, but NARAL decided to make it controversial. It was great to see that most of the feedback to the tweet was somewhere along the lines of “Well, what is she pregnant with, then? A rock?”

It appears that most of us realize that an ultrasound actually does show an human on the screen. We don’t find that debatable. What perhaps is debatable is whether unborn babies actually like Doritos! Now there is fodder for a fun discussion…or better yet, a fun commercial!

— Megan Imwalle
Communications Intern