Mormon actor crams it in the Mini Cooper

Not that I was watching TV on a Sunday, but did anybody else notice Mormon actor Kirby Heyborne in the Mini-Coooper commercial? In an apparent sexual reference, Heyborne puts a lot of stuff in the back (boot) of a small Mini Cooper car. This is not the first time Heyborne has been seen doing controversial things during commercials: some people didn’t like his participation in a Miller Lite commercial.

Brother Heyborne is best known in the Mormon world for his roles in the “RM,” “Single’s Ward,” and “The Best Two Years.” I thought he was hilarious in “The Best Two Years.” My take: give Kirby a break, it’s not easy making it in the acting world.

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About Geoff B.

Geoff B graduated from Stanford University (class of 1985) and worked in journalism for several years until about 1992, when he took up his second career in telecommunications sales. He has held many callings in the Church, but his favorite calling is father and husband. Geoff is active in martial arts and loves hiking and skiing. Geoff has five children and lives in Colorado.

24 thoughts on “Mormon actor crams it in the Mini Cooper

  1. Pingback: Tweets that mention » Mormon actor crams it in the Mini Cooper The Millennial Star -- Topsy.com

  2. ” apparent sexual reference” ?

    ….not that apparent to me, I must say. Perchance an attempt of controversy-mongering, this?

  3. “Not that I was watching TV on a Sunday”

    Heehee 🙂

    Not that I was watching TV on a Sunday either, but I too was wondering if there would be complaining about the innuendo in that ad.

  4. His ‘companion’ on The Best Two Years, K. C. Clyde did the dogsitting Bud Light commercial tonight. Both did a great job. It’s a commercial. Good for them. What are the odds of them both doing a Super Bowl commercial? Exciting

  5. Maybe taking offense to the innuendo is sort of self-preventing, i.e., the types of people who would get upset about it are also likely to (a) not watch the Superbowl on Sunday, and/or (b) not get it.

  6. Until you mentioned it, I didn’t get the sexual reference. I just thought it was a silly way to show how much a Mini-Cooper fits. (Which was an impressive amount, actually.)

  7. In the Doritos commercial, the man who gets his fingers licked by his office mate is a Mormon.

  8. While it’s not our place to condemn or judge Kirby Heyborne, I agree with Elder Oaks on the subject:

    “Christian standards should also apply to those who earn a living by selling or advertising products in the marketplace…

    “Sister Oaks called my attention to a similar example in the world of advertising. The magazine Women’s Sports and Fitness does not accept cigarette ads, thus foregoing much-needed revenue. A woman columnist and physician, Dr. Joan Ullyot, praised this policy and contrasted it to the practice of another organization:

    “’I am dismayed that a prominent women’s sport, tennis, continues to take support from a cigarette company. Surely the top women in this sport, none of whom smoke, have the [courage] to say no to this hypocrisy and stop lending their names and prestige to sanction and glamorize a lethal product. Any role model in sport who accepts support or sponsorship from a company whose products destroy health and fitness should take a hard look at what she is, by association, endorsing’(Women’s Sports and Fitness, Sept. 1986, p. 12).

    “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this same attitude of looking after the interests of others governed Latter-day Saints who are making a profit from the sale or promotion of alcoholic beverages? Consider the terrible effects of alcohol. Alcohol-related accidents are the leading cause of death of those under twenty-five. The physical, social, and financial effects of alcohol ruin marriages and family life. By dulling inhibitions, alcohol leads to untold numbers of crimes and moral transgressions. Alcohol is the number one addictive drug in our day.

    “The consumption of alcohol is increasing among youth. Targeting young audiences, advertisers portray beer and wine as joyful, socially desirable, and harmless. Producers are promoting new types of alcoholic beverages as competitors in the huge soft-drink market. Grocery and convenience stores and gas stations stock alcoholic beverages side by side with soda pop. Can Christians who are involved in this commerce be indifferent to the physical and moral effects of the alcohol from which they are making their profits?

    “Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should not be involved in employment or other activities upon which they cannot conscientiously ask the blessings of the Lord.”

  9. That’s easy to say if you’re in charge of a company, but what if you’re just a grunt graphic designer who has to design what is handed to them?

  10. SilverRain,

    Being a grunt graphic designer myself, I would just say no. There’s no need to value job security over my integrity. I trust God will provide. And if I die of hunger for refusing to be complicit in evil—at least I’ll die with a clean conscience.

    Yes, it’s a canned response. But sometime we all just need to buck up and have faith. As Nephi said,

    “Let us … be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than [my boss], yea, or even than [all the employers like him]? … Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.”

  11. 1) Jeffrey (#9): Are you married with children?

    2) Horray for Kirby Heyborne and K.C. Clyde.

    3) I immediately saw the innuendo in the commercial. (And though I spent much of Sunday online, I did not watch the Super Bowl.)

    4) But I realize that one likely needs to have been exposed to, ahem… “immodesty”, i.e. a convert or a prodigal son (Geoff and I are converts), in order to get the innuendo up front. Kind of like “to the pure, all things are pure.”

    5) Yeah, we need more Mormons in the lime-light, other than Harry Reid.

  12. @ Bookslinger

    “we need more Mormons in the limelight”

    Gladys Knight, The Osmonds, Vai Sikehema, Steve Young, I believe there are a few football players on the Pittsburg Steelers who are members. And lets not forget Andy Reid. Andy Reid is big in Eagles country.

    I really don’t believe the issue is having more Mormons in the limelight.

    I think its really interesting that people are commenting on Superbowl Advertisements with Mormons in the commercials participating in questionable activity, because the next question that comes to my mind is Why were you and everyone else commenting watching the Superbowl on a Sunday in the first place? I don’t think that anyone can claim being offended by any advertisments. I think people need to worry about what they are doing, instead of what everyone is doing.

  13. I meant to add that I don’t believe the issue is that we don’t have enough “good Mormons,” I think we need to stop expecting them to be something we are not, “Perfect.”

  14. Bookslinger,

    No, I am not. But it wouldn’t change my answer, because I reject the premise that trust in God is only commendable when it’s not risky.

  15. When I saw Kirby in the commercial, I had two reactions: good for him, getting in a Super Bowl commercial!
    My next reaction was that should be more embarrassed that it was a stupid commercial, rather than embarrassed because of the innuendo.

  16. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this same attitude of looking after the interests of others governed Latter-day Saints who are making a profit from the sale or promotion of alcoholic beverages?”

    Jeffrey, I don’t understand why Elder Oaks just didn’t take this up personally with the Marriott’s instead of speaking about it obliquely from the pulpit, I’m sure he knows them.

  17. Can you really judge these actors without judging and LDS football players that were playing in the game on Sunday?

  18. KLC,

    Jeffrey, I don’t understand why Elder Oaks just didn’t take this up personally with the Marriott’s instead of speaking about it obliquely from the pulpit, I’m sure he knows them.

    I’m sure he knows someone involved in pornography too. Why didn’t he just take it up with them personally, rather than speaking about it obliquely from the pulpit? Because as an Apostle and representative of Jesus Christ, it is his prerogative to warn all of against being complicit in sin.

  19. Can you really judge these actors without judging and LDS football players that were playing in the game on Sunday?

    We can’t really judge any of these people, but we can recognize the actions themselves as being a violation of God’s laws.

  20. Jeff T, you are not allowed to say that *anything* is in violation of God’s laws. You are only allowed to condemn other people who say anything is in violation of God’s laws. The first is judgmental, but the second is *not* judgmental because everybody knows that it is not self-righteous to condemn other people for being self-righteous. Don’t you know the rules?

  21. dblock:

    1) In case it’s any of your business, I did not watch the Superbowl on Sunday. I wrote “And though I spent much of Sunday online, I did not watch the Super Bowl.” I still have not watched the Superbowl; not on TV, not recorded, and not online. I actually watched the commercials featuring Mormon actors online (on the Internet) on Monday.

    2) In response to your listing some famous Mormons in the spotlight, my rejoinder is still “We need _more_ Mormons (than just those) in the spotlight.”

    Jeff: “No, I am not. But it wouldn’t change my answer, because I reject the premise that trust in God is only commendable when it’s not risky.

    Commendable has nothing to do with it. I don’t think you understood my question. So… nevermind. Just please remember to re-think it through, and ask your wife’s opinion on the matter after you’re married and have a child.

  22. @ Bookslinger

    I think you missed the point of my response, which is regardless of weather or not one is watching the Superbowl or the Superbowl adds we shouldn’t be judging anyone weather they are Mormon or not. Especially if one is going to do it under the guise that just because one is Mormon that makes us automatically better. We don’t get to make those kinds of statements about people.

    And for the record, I never said it was any of my business. I just pointed out the hypocrisy of people on the OP making judgment statements against those who do and those who participated in various advertisements. I still stand by what I say, Its’ not my place to judge anyone making these advertisements, nor yours or anyone else

  23. I definitely liked it. People don’t like to talk about sexuality in this country, and I think too many are guilty of taking sexuality too seriously. And by that I don’t mean that people aren’t promiscuous enough or something. I mean that we ascribe a seriousness to something that is inherently pleasurable, joyful, and yes, sometimes very funny.

    I think presenting something vaguely sexual (shoving a 10-foot sub into the back of a car) without actually asking actors to perform sex acts (i.e. not presenting pornography) is a clever and harmless way to remind us all to take sex a little less seriously – even if that’s not what the commercial’s producers intended. Sex is fun, and funny, and when you take it too seriously – when you refuse to make jokes about it or even mention it in anything but the clinical what-goes-where sense – you take the fun out of it. And taking the fun out of it is as much a detriment to a person’s relationship with their spouse as would be an unhealthy preoccupation with pornography.

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