the company apologised to anyone who felt offended
When this add was broadcast. Nice, I thought. Clearly a play on a straight relationship – not really meant to be gay at all. But still, the kids unphased by the show of affection, the whole shebang, I though Nice.
And now, Heinz has canned the ad. After over 200 complaints.
Now, call me naive, but did Heinz really think that nobody would complain?
Did they really think that the ad would go out to a chorus of ‘Ahhh’ from everyone?
So, if they anticipated a degree of dissatisfaction would come their way, what was the acceptable level?
“Hey Nigel, the ASA got 100 complaints about the add?”
“A hundred? Fuck‘em. Ignorant bigots, the lot of em.”
“It’s up to 150 now, Nige.”
“You mean there’s only 150 small minded homophobes in England. Glory be! I’m takin’ the kids there for Pride week.”
“199”
“Keep showin’ the add, Frank. That’s one hundred and ninety-nine to 60,600,000. Screw ‘em.”
“Two hundred now.”
“Two Hundred? Mother of God! Pull the ad!!!! PULL THE ADDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
What if the two people in the ad were a White man and a Black woman? And what if 200 racist morons complained that it turned their little stomachs to see disgusting, stomach-turning inter-racial pecks on the lips at mealtimes? Would it be pulled then?
What was the magical number? Or was there ever a magical number? Why put the ad on if you’re going to pull it for 200 complaints?
Maybe for exactly the reason that you put any ad on: It made people talk about the product. And, now that they’ve talked about it, you pull the ad.
Why O why O why O why am I surprised when ad people act cynically? Why do I feel used and angry and upset, as though, again, I’ve been the punchline to a joke: “Oooh look, aren’t they funny, two men aping domesticity with kids. Funny, eh? What? You don’t like it? Nah, me neither. Faggots. Fuck ‘em!”
Heinz, like Becks before them (who sponsored, then publicly renounced, the first series of Queer as Folk on Channel 4) have joined my list of companies I don’t really like any more. Not quite in the arms manufacturers level, but disappointing.