Dorito’s “The Best Part,” 2011
If you’re grossed out by the powdery, greasy, orange residue left from chowing on snacks like Cheetos, Cheez-Its, or Doritos, odds are you avoid eating them. But even snack fans have their limits. Licking your fingers in public? Gauche. Letting others lick them? That’s just gross.
That the denouement of this spot featured this office worker eating nacho cheese dust off a colleague’s pants was enough to trigger full recoil. The spot was among the winners of year five of Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl,” which invited fans to compete to have their ad aired.
Snickers’ “Kiss,” 2007
This ad was cringey enough that Snickers pulled it, complete with a sort-of apology, shortly after it aired in Super Bowl XLI. In the spot, two mechanics sharing the same Snickers bar chew until their lips meet in an accidental kiss. Horrified by what they’ve just done, both proceed to “do something manly” to compensate.
The version that ran on Snickers’ website featured footage of NFL players cringing because male-on-male kissing grossed them out. But that sort of cringing prompted the cringe of the gay community, which had hoped that the era of homophobic ridicule in advertising had come to an end.
