Over 17 Thousand People Want NBC’s NASCAR Commercial Pulled

NBC is airing a new NASCAR commercial, and since it was first revealed on Youtube, nearly 18,000 people have signed a petition to call for its cancellation. They say the commercial is offensive, and it’s aimed at people suffering from celiac disease. There are three versions of the commercial; a 30-second spot, a minute-long version, and the full two-minute commercial. You can watch the full version below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi68a0LsLDA

As you can see, the part that has offended shows up in the first 20 seconds of the commercial.

“When our idea of danger is eating gluten, there’s trouble afoot. Yes, we the people have gotten soft and all the likes in the world aren’t gonna save us now.”

The commercial for NASCAR on NBC has gone fairly viral, with over 3 million views, but it’s getting a lot of negative feedback. Sufferers of celiac disease feel they’re being targeted as the reason America is ‘going soft,’ when celiac disease is far from easy to live with.

Others, however, say that the commercial isn’t meant to poke fun at celiac sufferers, but instead at the folks who refuse to eat gluten because they’re pretty sure it’s dangerous…even though they don’t know what exactly it is — the same folks mocked in the Jimmy Kimmel clip below.

“Some people can’t eat gluten for medical reasons, but a lot of people in Los Angeles don’t eat gluten because someone in their yoga class told them not to.”

The online petition, which has, as of this writing, gathered 17,759 signatures, calls for NBC to dump the offensive NASCAR commercial.

“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. When all we’re trying to do is manage our disease. Celiac can be a true pain. The media is not helping and this petition is get NBC to see the light of day.”

NBC has responded, cutting the gluten reference from the minute-long version of the commercial, but reportedly leaving it in the 30-second and two-minute NASCAR ads. The petitioners also say that they were told, at one point, that the commercial with the gluten reference would only be aired online, but that it has since been seen on television.

Do you think that people are misunderstanding the intent or is NBC’s new NASCAR commercial a verbal assault on the experiences of a group of people suffering through a very real and difficult condition? Sound off in the comments below this article.