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!
Almost all my free time at the moment is dedicated to preparing our house for baby’s arrival. Although we’re both really looking forward to it, the realisation of how much we have yet to do is quite worrying.
The only thing this weekend which justified a break from the chores was the return of the Cybermen on Doctor Who. If there was something not to be missed, I thought that would be it. Last year the Daleks made a triumphant return, last month saw K9’s reasonably welcome reappearance, but Saturday’s Rise of the Cybermen was a disappointment. Particularly so after last week’s episode (The Girl in the Fireplace) was the best yet. David Tennant makes a brilliantly comedic Doctor.
The Doctor: “It’s a temporal hyperlink!”
Mickey: “What’s one of them?”
The Doctor: “No idea. Just made it up. Didn’t want to say ‘magic door’.”
Our work-horse of a 2001-model digital camera now rarely switches to ‘record’ mode, so can’t be relied upon for Baby’s precious first moments. Unfortunately a replacement is not as high up the shopping list as other more vital baby-related purchases such as some flooring for the nursery, so I’m charging my DV camera as that also takes stills. The writing of the baby shopping list is “mummy’s” responsibility. It’s she who must remain stress-free during pregnancy so only she who knows what will help her achieve that (though another pair of Rocketdogs will likely raise my suspicions).
As this will be our first baby, it’s both exciting and scary at the same time. Each time we’re asked “how long until the baby” it seems to get rapidly shorter. This peaked when we no longer counted the time remaining in months, but started counting in weeks (two months became 8 weeks, then 7 etc.). Yesterday we switched from counting the weeks to counting the days.
It’s rare to get the entire population of a crowded cinema laughing and cringing along with a film to this extent! It wasn’t a great film, but it was very entertaining and a good no brainer evening out. American Pie’s humour is more like a TV sitcom than a film (not that I’m suggesting that they should try to drag out an entire series!).
I have to point out that my fiancee finds it quite offensive that I consider Alyson Hannigan to be pretty because, apparently, she “consistentlymings“. Clearly.
