Let's Be Honest, Consistency Is the Best Policy, Part I

You may have seen the Twix commercial - yeah, that one with the little boy that we’re at first convinced is a little girl. Home alone with not a parent in sight, he’s wearing a dress, has messy hair, and is playing with girlie toys.

Outside the house we see a minivan pull up, the driver’s door open and some chunky leather and heavily buckled boots step out. The boots belong to a self-identified witch who claims to be the new babysitter sent by the M.I.A. parents. There’s a touching scene when the witch asks the little boy if he’s buckled before they drive off to the park. The little boy answers, “I’m still wearing my princess dress.” The babysitter witch replies, “Do you wanna wear it?” The little boy nods “yes” and the reasonable witch cooly replies, “Okay” as she puts on her sunglasses.

The commercial’s big finish gives us a confrontation at the park between a boy we’re supposed to see as “the bully” (Twix would probably have us believe his parents voted for Trump) and the dress-wearing boy. The supposed bully says the dress-wearing boy (who is trying to look like a girl) looks like a girl and that the dress-wearing boy and his witch nanny look weird. The witch, in an effort to protect her dress-wearing charge, makes the supposed bully disappear in a wild gust of wind. I kid you not - this is a commercial for a candy bar you can find on YouTube.

In the days following the commercial’s release, there was a backlash on Twitter. A lot of folks were very upset and for good reason. The commercial is ridiculous. We could write a dissertation on all that’s wrong with it and how, in 2 minutes, it catalogs many of the ills of our society. but that’s not the point of this article. Along with the backlash on Twitter came numerous declarations that those unhappy with the commercial would never eat a Twix bar again. I get it! I too have felt that inclination arise when a corporation flexes its progressive muscle.

This phenomenon of consumers wanting to boycott the most annoying brand du jour or commodity, in general, is nothing new. There have been suggestions for everyone to not get gas on a certain day with the obvious problem here being that those same folks all have to get gas a couple of days later. There’s the furor over a video streaming service for their heinous material and a reasonable response being that those folks are done with that service. No argument here but I hear many of the same folks raving over their favorite programs on sister streaming services that others have boycotted for equally offensive material.

The issue at hand is conscience and I’m not arguing that people should do harm to their God-given sensitivities by eating a Twix bar. Here’s the rub. In the case of boycotting the crunchy caramel-covered chocolate bar, it is owned by Mars, Inc, a global corporation that boasts dozens of brands. So, if you can give up Twix, to be consistent, you’re going to give up M&Ms, Skittles, Kind bars, Iams pet food, and on and on. It’s a little tricky boycotting companies these days in our global economy where very few brands aren’t found under the umbrella of a conglomerate.

In the second installment of this short series, I’ll attempt to address the following questions: Why is consistency important to our Christian witness? How do we guard our conscience while living consistently? What does consistency look like in our day and age?