Uber Eats to delete Super Bowl ad’s peanut-allergy bit after angry backlash
This Super Bowl Sunday, don’t forget Uber Eats — but also, as the food-delivery service has learned, don’t forget that trying to make light of a life-threatening allergy is bad PR.
This Super Bowl Sunday, don’t forget Uber Eats — but also, as the food-delivery service has learned, don’t forget that trying to make light of a life-threatening allergy is bad PR.
Uber Eats, a division of the ride-sharing company, on Feb. 6 debuted its 60-second 2024 Super Bowl commercial, centered on the running joke of forgetfulness. The spot, which marks Uber Eats’ fourth year in the Super Bowl, features David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston (who forgets she worked with him on “Friends” for 10 years); David and Victoria Beckham (who fail to remember the Spice Girls), as well as Jelly Roll trying to scrub tattoos off his face and Usher blanking on the fact that he just performed the halftime show.
The ad, from creative ad agency Special Group, also shows regular people making comically absent-minded goofs. But one scene was decidedly unfunny for many: A man eating a spoonful of peanut butter from a jar — who has broken out in hives and whose left eye has swollen shut in an allergic reaction — glances down at the food label and remarks, “There’s peanuts in peanut butter? Oh, it’s the primary ingredient.”
The scene from Uber Eats' 2024 Super Bowl NFL football spot.Uber EatsThe ad was slammed by not-for-profit advocacy group Food Allergy Research & Education, which said in a statement: “We’re incredibly disappointed by @UberEats’ use of life-threatening food allergies as humor in its Super Bowl ad. The suffering of 33M+ Americans with this condition is no joke. Life-threatening food allergy is a disease, not a diet. Enough is enough.”
On Friday, Dr. Sung Poblete, CEO of FARE, said in a statement that she had spoken with Uber and that the company had agreed to remove the offending scene. Uber has “made a change to the ad that will air to the Super Bowl’s wide audience” by “editing out the reference to the peanut allergy,” she said. Variety confirmed that Uber will air an alternate version of the spot without the peanut-butter scene in the CBS telecast but currently does not plan to edit or remove the ad previously released online.
Rating: 5