Uber Eats peanut allergy joke removed after Super Bowl ad faces backlash

Uber Eats remembered the dangers of a certain life-threatening allergy just in time for Super Bowl Sunday. 

Last week, the food delivery platform debuted a star-studded game day ad that was slated to play during the big game. With the tagline “Whatever you forget, just remember Uber Eats gets almost anything,” the commercial sees a series of average people and recognizable stars hilariously forgetting basic details of their lives — including a man with a nut allergy, who forgets the primary ingredient in peanut butter.

Covered in hives with one eye nearly swollen shut, he questions, “There’s peanuts in peanut butter?"

The video did feature a disclaimer of sorts. In small text beneath the hive-ridden man is the message, “Please please please do not forget there are peanuts in peanut butter.”

This was not enough to appease critics. The ad, originally posted on Feb. 6, quickly earned backlash from several non-profits, advocacy groups, and individuals, criticizing its insensitivity towards food allergies. 

Uber Eats Super Bowl ad. 

UBER/YOUTUBE

“We’re incredibly disappointed by UberEats’ use of life-threatening food allergies as humor in its Super Bowl ad,” non-profit Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) said in a statement. “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 Feb. 9, the company’s CEO Sung Poblete, shared an update: “I have spoken with Uber, they are very appreciative of FARE's valuable perspective and feedback and have made a change to the ad that will air to the Super Bowl's wide audience, they are editing out the reference to the peanut allergy,” the statement read. "I want to thank you, our community, for speaking up so that our voices could be heard as we change the way life-threatening food allergies are perceived."

An updated version of the commercial without the peanut joke aired during the Super Bowl, and has since been shared online. The original ad is now unlisted on YouTube. 

Reps for Uber Eats did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment.

Peanut joke aside, the ad still maintains its humorous premise of forgetfulness as a series of stars clear info from their brains to make space for Uber Eats. Jennifer Aniston forgets all about her Friends costar David Schwimmer while David and Victoria Beckham fail to recall the Spice Girls. And though the ad aired minutes after Usher was onstage, the R&B artist appears and voices his desire to one day perform at the Super Bowl halftime show.

You can watch the game day version of the Uber Eats ad above.