In the UK Heinz have pulled a TV ad showing a kiss between two men, after it received over 200 complaints that it was “offensive” and “inappropriate to see two men kissing”.
The advert shows a morning family routine - dad is getting ready for work whilst mum prepares sandwiches for the children. Because the sandwiches contain Heinz Deli Mayo, “mum” is visually represented by a stereotypical male New Work deli owner for comedic effect.
This advert does not feature a gay couple (as has been misreported in some cases) - it is a metaphor. The joke is that Heinz Deli Mayo makes sandwiches taste as if Mum’s kitchen has been transformed into a genuine New York deli.
Seemingly a fraction of the population didn’t understand that, and Heinz apparently agree with them that a parody situation where a man gives another man a goodbye peck before heading to work is offensive. That being the case, it rather strongly implies that they would consider any kind of genuine homosexuality to be even “worse”!
If offending 200 people causes them concern, I think they’ve just hit a PR disaster by offending the entire gay community. Not to mention straight people like myself who are offended that Heinz took the opinion of 200 bigoted complainers to be representative of the views of the entire nation. Wake up Heinz - this is 2008, not 1908!
I’m no political blogger, but I do take a mild interest in the blunderings of George W. Bush for pure entertainment value and just in case he accidentally presses the big red button when he’s meaning to call for a pizza. Today I stumbled upon a Huffington Post article quoting Dubya’s recent speech about the latest developments in Iraq:
War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much.” President Bush - March 19, 2008.
As you can see from the second part of the sentence, Bush is trying to attack the methods of war critics. I include that just for context, but it is of no importance to the following point.
Taking just the first part of the sentence, Bush is clearly saying that up until now there has been credibility to the argument that the US Army is losing in Iraq. Which to me reads as an admission that each time he’s assured the world of their success for the last four years, he knew it was a lie.
I’ve never met anybody who sings the praises of O2, the phone network Apple have disappointingly chosen to exclusively offer the iPhone in the UK. Once upon a time I was an O2 customer, but the experience was so bad that not even the iPhone will tempt me back. I was an ‘online’ customer, which meant suffering their awful, error-riddled website, because no in-store representative could even talk to me about my account, and I refused to call their premium-rate customer support number to talk to an incompetent call centre buffoon.
It doesn’t fill me with confidence that even after the iPhone launch has been announced, O2 have such disregard for Apple’s customers that the left-hand navigation on their website is missing when viewed in Apple’s Safari web browser (the browser built-in to the iPhone). If you do get an iPhone in the UK, don’t expect to use it to check your bill online*.
Even more annoyingly, when I filled in their contact form to report this issue, I received the following email:
Thanks for getting in touch.
We’re really excited about the iPhone - for the most up to date information we recommend you visit www.o2.co.uk/iphone or www.apple.com/ukstore
If your query doesn’t relate to the iPhone, please reply to this email and we’ll help you further.
…so, essentially: “Nobody will read your message. If you really want us to read it then try to remember what you typed in our online form, and type it up again in an email.” - thanks O2, how helpful of you.
* I’ve just installed a beta version of Safari 3, and discovered that the problem doesn’t happen. Safari 3 will only be on a very few web developer’s Macs at the moment, so most of the world still sees the broken site - and it wouldn’t even be a hard thing for O2 to fix.
