Uber Eats is forced to make last-minute change to Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer Super Bowl ad after outrage over scene where allergic man eats peanut butter
Uber Eats was pressured to make a last-minute change to its Super Bowl commercial after complaints surfaced about a quick scene in which a man with a peanut allergy eats peanut butter.
The buzzy commercial, starring Friends actors David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, was released on February 6.
The ad plays with the idea of forgetfulness. Aniston doesn’t remember Schwimmer, with whom she starred opposite the iconic sitcom for a decade.
In one scene, a man with a swollen face, eating peanut butter from a jar with a spoon, says, “Is there peanuts in peanut butter?” Oh, it’s the main ingredient.’
Advocacy group Food Allergy Research & Education contacted Uber Eats to express their concerns, saying they were “incredibly disappointed” by the brand’s use of “life-threatening food allergies” as humor.
In one scene, a man with a swollen face, eating peanut butter from a jar with a spoon, says, “Is there peanuts in peanut butter?” Oh, it’s the most important ingredient’
“The suffering of more than 33 million Americans with this condition is no joke. Life-threatening food allergy is a disease, not a diet. Enough is enough,” the statement continued, reported by Variety.
According to the outlet, Uber Eats has agreed to cut the approximately three-second scene, which takes place about 35 seconds into the 60-second commercial.
The company has not publicly confirmed its intentions, but the advocacy group’s CEO said the food delivery service “has made a change to the ad that will air to the general public of the Super Bowl” that “removes the reference to the peanut allergy ‘ has been omitted. ‘
The National Institutes of Health reports that about 13 people die each year in the U.S. due to peanut allergies.
Aniston and Schwimmer star in the ad about forgetfulness
Aniston doesn’t remember her co-star and on-screen love interest of 10 years when they bump into each other on set
Aniston and Schwimmer worked together for a decade on the iconic sitcom, where their characters’ love story defined the show.
The premise of the commercial begins with Aniston receiving a bag of various goods, including flowers and shampoo, from Uber Eats.
She is handed the branded bag by a production assistant, who tells the star that she hadn’t remembered anyone being able to get “all this stuff through Uber Eats.”
Jennifer responds, “Well, you know what they say; To remember something you have to forget something else. Make some space.’
That line is followed by several situations where a person forgets an important piece of information, but doesn’t forget to order Uber Eats.
Aniston is then shown holding her Uber Eats bag as Schwimmer arrives on set.
He casually greets her and gives her a hug, but his former castmate looks disappointed and rejects him.
She says, “Um, have we met?”
The scene later cuts back to Aniston trying to figure out how she knows Schwimmer.
Aniston eventually walks away seemingly unfazed by the interaction, saying to herself, “Like I’d forget ten years of my life.” Schwimmer says: ‘I hate this city’
David and Victoria Beckham are also in attendance, making their Super Bowl ad debut
In part of the clip, Victoria and David ‘forget’ the name of her pop group The Spice Girls
Jennifer asks for a hint and David replies, “We worked together for ten years.”
She replies, “Ten years? You were great.’
Aniston eventually walks away seemingly unfazed by the interaction, saying to herself, “Like I’d forget ten years of my life.”
Schwimmer says to himself, “I hate this city.”
Elsewhere in the commercial, David and Victoria Beckham make their Super Bowl commercial debut, as the married couple forgets the name of Victoria’s iconic girl group The Spice Girls.