Doritos® and Pepsi MAX® are experiencing a bit of controversy regarding their annual Crash The Superbowl competition this year, as two ads depicting gay men have made the rounds on the web as if they were potential Super Bowl ad airs, despite never making it to the final round of the competition.

Frito-Lay Director of Public Relations Chris Kuechenmeister told GLAAD the ads were two out of 5,600 that were submitted to the company for its “Crash the Super Bowl” contest. He said the ads were not among the finalists chosen by a panel of judges, and have no chance of airing during the Super Bowl or otherwise.

The ads, which ran on The Advocate yesterday, sparked mixed reaction from gay viewers. One ad features two men steaming in the sauna as one man seductively eyes the other’s crotch. In a second ad a man gazes across the fence at his two gay neighbors, who are sunning themselves and eating Doritos by the pool.
Kuechenmeister said the contest’s judges sought to “identify spots that were appropriate for everyone” and “observe a level of respect for everybody.”
He said though the ads don’t appear on the contest’s official page and the company has no direct ability to remove them, he would be raising the issue with the company’s legal team.

Legal team? Oh dear. Somebody is getting shafted here, but who is screwing whom? Apart from the gay gag issues, making these ads not yet ready for prime time, one of them is a direct rip-off of an ad for a Swedish newspaper. Compare and contrast, kids.

The Doritos sauna scene::

The Swedish Newspaper Expressen's sauna scene from way back in the 90s y'all!

The ad-story here isn't "Oh dear, someone submitted a gay gag ad to the Crash the Super Bowl competition" but rather "They thought they'd get away with that rip-off?"