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Nick Offerman NASCAR Ad Angers Glutenites

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Still from Nick Offerman NASCAR ad

Nick Offerman drinks a cheap light beer that’s low in calories and high in gluten/patriotic pride

Last week, we showed you NBC’s new Ron Swanson Nick Offerman NASCAR ad, and then editorialized a little bit by offering up our own professional opinion that the ad was awesome. Well, apparently not everyone felt that way about it.

In fact, as of press time, 17,998 people have felt very strongly that the ad was not awesome. And they’ve made their displeasure known by signing a petition imploring NBC to edit the commercial to remove Offerman’s line, “When our idea of danger is eating gluten, there’s trouble afoot.”

The offending dialogue is uttered at around the 12-second mark:


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The petition was posted to change.org by a Newtown, Pennsylvania, man who calls himself “Gluten Dude,” which actually sounds like the name of an evil villain that would do battle with “Free-range Man” in a health-conscious graphic novel read by Portlandia characters.

“NBC is running a Super Bowl ad that makes fun of those who are gluten-free,” writes Gluten Dude. “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 [to] get NBC to see the light of day.”

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The Gluten Dude will not abide this aggression…This aggression by NBC will not stand…

While celiac disease is a serious medical condition, we don’t think this NASCAR ad is actually making light of it. The commercial is really just mocking those who avoid gluten not because they have celiac disease, but because they view a gluten-free diet as the latest and greatest health craze.

The commercial is also probably poking fun at the way that food and beverage manufacturers have cashed in on the gluten fad by pointlessly labeling things like bottled water “gluten free,” implying that there’s ever been water that isn’t gluten-free.

But none of that matters to Gluten Dude, whose latest petition update confirms that he and the other petition signers have succeeded in being the change they want to see in the world. On January 31st, right before the commercial made it’s Super Bowl debut, Gluten Dude wrote, “NBC has announced they will remove the gluten reference for the 60 second ad. That’s cool.”

Still from Nick Offerman NASCAR commercial

Not only is that a gluten-rich cake, but it’s being served on styrofoam plates. Have you no conscience, NBC?


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However, Gluten Dude feels that his celiac brothers and sisters still have not reached that mountaintop, adding that, “There is still a 30 second ad and believe it or not, a 2 minute ad that will most likely still contain the reference. Keep the signatures coming folks.”

If you’d like to join Gluten Dude’s fight against a harmless and funny NASCAR commercial (which actually includes the line “where everyone’s welcome and we all belong”), you can keep the signatures coming here. If you are a rational human being who is not offended by tongue-in-cheek odes to all-Amurican manliness, just keep living your life.