@tsarstepan,
Quote:Firefly is constantly missing out on that one key point. Barilla and its homophobic executive could have never made their homophobic thoughts public and no one would have gave them any extra thought other then "we like their pasta" or "we love their pasta" or "their pasta is meh," etc....
But with their public proclamation then they are trying to influence public perception on a given issue towards their limited/discriminatory way of thinking or at least to use the ensuing media driven controversy to blatantly pander to those bigots of the world and have them choose Barilla as their pasta of choice.
The CEO of Barilla, during an interview, was asked a specific question about whether same-sex couples and families would ever be included in their ads and he said no. It's a statement about their marketing policy but I'm not sure it really rises to the level of a "public proclamation" that indicates the man is homophobic or that he has homophobic thoughts or that Barilla's corporate position is homophobic or anti-gay.
And I don't think Barilla was, "trying to influence public perception on a given issue towards their limited/discriminatory way of thinking"--not at all. Barilla, after his remarks about retaining their current ads, that show only traditional heterosexual families and couples, immediately said that he personally supports gay marriage--which actually puts him on the same side as the gay rights community in terms of that social and political issue.
If Barilla was trying to influence public perception on this issue, the gay community should be happy to know that they have this support. And, rather than trying to, "blatantly pander to those bigots of the world," Barilla's comments would actually gain him little or no support in those quarters since, in a country that currently allows no legal recognition of same-sex marriages, he's announced his support of gay marriage.
As I said in my previous post, I think the gay activist movement, particularly in Italy, is trying to parlay Barilla's remarks into political and social capital for themselves and their own issues. Barilla doesn't need this publicity, Barilla doesn't need any publicity, their brand recognition and sales do just fine. Their ad campaigns do the job of selling their pasta, and there is no compelling reason for them to tamper with success in that regard.
I think it's the gay rights movement that's trying to make hay with what Barilla said, in terms of garnering publicity and trying to exert consumer muscle. And that makes sense, particularly at a time they are trying to get specific legislation passed in the Italian senate to better protect the LGBT community from discrimination. But it seems to have resulted in considerable distortion of what the furor is about. It's not about Barilla being a homophobe or a bigot--he really seems to be neither--and it's not even about Barilla sticking to their guns about their ad images--it's about the gay activist movement trying to demonstrate their buying power, and boycott power, when a corporate CEO refuses to let a special interest group dictate his company's marketing techniques, and he tells them go elsewhere if you don't like the way we sell our product.
I feel this controversy has little or nothing to do with civil or human rights for homosexuals, or discrimination against them, but that's the mask or political spin that's been put on it by gay activist groups for their own reasons. If I thought there was any merit in this boycott, in terms of promoting gay rights, I'd be supporting it.