Snickers ad pulled following accusations of homophobia after it showed influencer transform into gruff man with a beard

SNICKERS has been forced to pull a "homophobic" ad in Spain that sees a social media influencer transform into a gruff man with a beard.

The prime-time ad shows Spanish social media star Aless Gibaja flamboyantly order an orange juice and winking at the waiter as an embarrassed friend looks on.

The waiter hands him a Snickers ice cream bar and after taking a bite, Gibaja turns into a bearded man.

"Better?" his friend asks. "Better," he responds as the chocolate bar's tagline appears: "You're not you when you're hungry".

Snickers commercials with similar story lines have aired on British TV with little to no uproar and have featured stars such as Sir Elton John and Dame Joan Collins.

But the ad sparked intense backlash in Spain, with one critic saying he wasn't sure if Snickers was "advertising ice cream or conversion therapy".

An LGBTQ+ rights group branded the ad "shameful" and said that it was "unfortunate that there are companies that continue to perpetuate stereotypes and promote homophobia".

The minister for equality, Irene Montero, tweeted: "I wonder who would think it is a good idea to use homophobia as a business strategy.

"Our society is diverse and tolerant. Hopefully those who have the power to decide what we see and hear in advertisements and TV programmes will learn to be as well."

Gibaja, who is a gay transvestite known for his vlogs, also copped flack for appearing in the video.

One person tweeted: "It is humiliation for money and the problem is that they are not only humiliating him and making fun of him, but that they are sending that message out and it affects everyone."

Gibaja, a social media star with more than 700,000 followers on Instagram, has not yet commented on the situation.

Snickers has since apologised, saying it was sorry for any "misunderstanding that may have been caused" by the 20-second clip.

This comes weeks after Spain was rocked by the fatal beating of a young man in an alleged homophobic attack.

The killing of 24-year-old Samuel Luiz sparked nationwide protests in early July.

Samuel was leaving a nightclub in A Coruña, Galicia when one man who thought he was being recorded attacked him.

Moments later, a group of friends connected to the assailant circled around Samuel and beat him to death.

Spanish cops said the group "showed him no mercy,” with “between six and 10 people kicking him".

Samuel later died of his injuries in hospital.

In its apology on Thursday, Snickers Spain said it would immediately pull the commercial, adding: "In this particular campaign we wanted to convey in a friendly and light-hearted way that hunger can change your character.

"At no time was it intended to stigmatise or offend any person or collective."

A spokesperson for Mars Wrigley, which owns the Snickers brand, said: "We would like to wholeheartedly apologise for any harm caused by a recent advert for Snickers Ice Cream in Spain.

"We recognise that we got it wrong and have removed the online content immediately.

"We take equal rights and inclusion seriously, we want a world where everybody is free to be themselves and we believe that as an employer and advertiser we have a role and a responsibility to play our part in creating that world.

"We will take the opportunity to listen and learn from this mistake and do better in the future."

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