If retailer H&M hoped to cause a stir with its Super Bowl commercial featuring David Beckham in just his underwear, that goal was met with the help of CNN’s Roland Martin.
The ad is simple. A camera pans over the soccer star’s tattooed body in close up, stopping finally on the H&M logo. A few minutes after it aired, Martin tweeted, “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him! #superbowl.”
WATCH BECKHAM’S H&M AD BELOW:
[youtubevid http://youtube.com/watch?v=eQb_-OY7Z0E]
GLAAD, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, replied to Martin, ”@rolandsmartin Advocates of gay bashing have no place at @CNN #SuperBowl #LGBT”
Within 30 minutes, Marin was on the defensive writing his original tweet was him “ripping” on soccer, not encouraging gay bashing. He tweeted, “It’s hilarious when idiots like @marcslove @clarknt67 see my Beckham tweet as homophobic when I RIP on soccer all of the time.”
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, a GLAAD spokesman pointed out that Martin has a history of making anti-gay comments. Earlier on Super Bowl Sunday, he tweeted that a New England Patriots player wearing pink needed “a visit from #teamwhipdatass.” Martin also defended comedian Tracy Morgan’s “joke” about killing his son if he was gay and has supported conversion therapy for gays and lesbians on his website.
CNN has not commented on whether or not Martin will be reprimanded for his tweets.
Follow Donovan X. Ramsey on Twitter at @idxr