The above photo is a screengrab (via the Daily Mail) from a Heinz commercial that recently ran in the UK during the day. The controversy, as you can see, is obvious... but there's more...
The ad opens with two children, a boy and a girl, readying for school:
They refer to a man making sandwiches in the kitchen as 'mum'.
He is dressed like a delicatessen worker and has a New York accent.
Their father enters the kitchen, grabs a sandwich and says to the man: 'See you tonight, love'.
The 'mum' then shouts back 'Hey, ain't you forgetting something', before the two men kiss.
'Mum' then tells him: 'Love you. Straight home from work sweetcheeks.'
It finishes with the slogan: 'Heinz Deli Mayo – Mayo with a New York Deli flavour.'
Just so you UK people know: gay marriages aren't legal in New York either. Or are we missing the point?
Anyway, the ad received hundreds of complaints before being pulled. Heinz, of course, stood up to the pressure and defended gay people in a heroic press conference speech:
Nigel Dickie, of Heinz UK, said: 'It is our policy to listen to consumers. We recognise that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it. The advertisement, part of a short-run campaign, was intended to be humorous and we apologise to anyone who felt offended.'
It's perhaps gays who might be offended by Mr. Dickie (no jokes, please)-- after all, they're the ones being insulted, judging by the complaints quoted by the Daily Mail, and by the ad, which sounds pretty dumb on paper, for starters...