Anybody up for boycotting Barilla Pasta?

@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

I doubt the bullies can get stores to drop the brand immediately

by not purchasing the product, the 'bullies' can make sure there's product to be returned - which can effect what is ordered in the future. drops of water on a stone take a while but eventually they can break the stone.

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@jcboy,

Yup - 25% of the U.S. pasta market in the U.S. according to wikipedia

Quote:

it is the world's leading pasta maker with 40-45% of the Italian market and 25% of the US market.[1] It produces pasta in over 120 shapes and sizes. Barilla brand pasta is sold in numerous restaurants worldwide, such as those belonging to the Pastamania chain.[2]

another good reason to cook at home more often where you can control the products you are using

(and pasta is pretty easy to make from scratch)

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

hawkeye10 wrote:
I doubt the bullies can get stores to drop the brand immediately

by not purchasing the product, the 'bullies' can make sure there's product to be returned - which can effect what is ordered in the future. drops of water on a stone take a while but eventually they can break the stone.

You really think people are going to forever boycott this product?

It's the flavor of the month.

Let's see what people have their panties in a twist about next week.

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@ehBeth,

Quote:

by not purchasing the product, the 'bullies' can make sure there's product to be returned - which can effect what is ordered in the future. drops of water on a stone take a while but eventually they can break the stone.

What percents of their customers know about the issue and what percents that happen to know about the matter neither care or perhaps even agree with the firm owners?

Harder by far to ruin a large company then it is one woman with a few restaurants and a cable cooking show.

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@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

Anybody up for boycotting Barilla Pasta?

Count me out. In my view, Barilla has done nothing wrong.

It's their ads; they can show in them what they want. Nobody is claiming there's anything wrong with what they're showing. In particular, nobody is claiming they're showing anything that disparages gay people. And if all consumers boycotted every brand for what it's not showing and that they'd rather like to watch, the whole economy would screetch to a halt. The right of gay people to appear in other people's commercials it is not worth a boycott; I won't participate in any.

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@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

Really? 25%? Are you talking about restaurants or super markets?

combined, whereas some pasta companies only do retail the big three also do restaurant sales (10% of the pasta market), that being Barilla, IAPC and Dakota Growers. if a restaurant buys from a mainline food distributor they will get one if these three companies...Sysco for instance is IAPC and Foodservices of America is Dakota Growers. barilla is higher quality than the other two and has less market share, though they are #1 in Europe in restaurant sales.

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@chai2,

Quote:

You really think people are going to forever boycott this product?

It's the flavor of the month.

Unless the aim of the boycott becomes clearer, other than to simply demonstrate some power to affect Barilla's sales in the short term, an effect that, at best, would likely have more impact in Italy than anywhere else, I'm not sure this is going to generate general interest beyond the current news cycle. That a CEO of an Italian family owned pasta company has rather quaint and somewhat outdated notions of what constitutes a family, and the proper role of women in the home, really isn't going to get the average person worked up enough to change their buying habits.

Outside of Italy, in the U.S. for instance, pasta is not a diet staple that is consumed with any great frequency. Those who eat pasta mainly because of it's low cost are probably more influenced by price than social concerns when they reach for a package on the shelf. If Barilla is on sale, as it often is, those people will keep buying Barilla. And there are people who may simply like Barilla products, or are accustomed to buying them, and they'll go on doing that. And then there are those who may switch to Barilla to show support for their position, or because they feel the company is being unfairly scapegoated in all of this. So I think it will be difficult to ferret out any effects or impact from these boycott efforts.

In addition, I'm not sure why Barilla warrants being boycotted. Is it because the company won't show non-traditional families, or men doing the cooking, in their ads? Or is it about the personal views and attitudes held by Barilla's CEO, which include support for gay marriage, but a definite preference to see family life continue in its traditional heterosexual form and traditional gender role divisions? Or is it just about Barilla's ticking off LGBT activist groups by telling them they can move along to other brands if they don't like the company's product or marketing policies?

I'm not dumb, I'm not naïve, I'm not politically or socially insensitive, but I'm very unclear about why Barilla is being boycotted, and I can't be alone in that. Are they doing or saying anything that's actually harmful to anyone? A boycott is a form of punishment, so exactly what is Barilla being punished for? And why should I want to join that boycott? I really wish someone would make a convincing case for my doing that. I don't share Barilla's personal views of what a family should be, and the only thing I generally like about their ads is the music, but those are not things that would motivate me to either buy their product or not buy it. So, someone, please tell me, what is Barilla doing that is so bad I should stop buying their products?

And exactly what is the aim of the boycott? Is it to get the company to change the image of family shown in their ads? Is it to get the CEO to change his personal opinions on such matters? Is it to extract a certain kind of apology from him? Exactly what's the point? And how are we to know when it's accomplished? And, is there any agreement on any of this?

The CEO of Barilla has issued yet another apology and, in this one, a video, he pledges to meet with LGBT representatives, and to listen to their views. Is that enough to end this brouhaha?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100857134817001&set=vb.184778364902413&type=2&theater

Exactly what is the end game with all of this?

Quote:

Let's see what people have their panties in a twist about next week

Personally, I'm more upset by Gov. Christie currently vowing to block the court-ordered legalization of same-sex marriage in New Jersey. That's a move I see as harmful to the lives, and rights, and welfare, of a group of my fellow citizens, and something that provokes real outrage in me for that reason.

Wouldn't it make more sense to call for a boycott of New Jersey, and its products, and it's tourist attractions, like the Atlantic City casinos and hotels, then to get worked up about how open-minded an aging Italian CEO, in a country heavily influenced by the Vatican, is about changing mores and non-traditional families? I'm not sure that Barilla's views or attitudes really impact lives at all, but Christie's definitely do.

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@firefly,

firefly wrote:

I'm not dumb, I'm not naïve, I'm not politically or socially insensitive, but I'm very unclear about why Barilla is being boycotted, and I can't be alone in that. Are they doing or saying anything that's actually harmful to anyone? A boycott is a form of punishment, so exactly what is Barilla being punished for? And why should I want to join that boycott? I really wish someone would make a convincing case for my doing that. I don't share Barilla's personal views of what a family should be, and the only thing I generally like about their ads is the music, but those are not things that would motivate me to either buy their product or not buy it. So, someone, please tell me, what is Barilla doing that is so bad I should stop buying their products?

And exactly what is the aim of the boycott? Is it to get the company to change the image of family shown in their ads? Is it to get the CEO to change his personal opinions on such matters? Is it to extract a certain kind of apology from him? Exactly what's the point? And how are we to know when it's accomplished? And, is there any agreement on any of this?

The CEO of Barilla has issued yet another apology and, in this one, a video, he pledges to meet with LGBT representatives, and to listen to their views. Is that enough to end this brouhaha?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10100857134817001&set=vb.184778364902413&type=2&theater

Exactly what is the end game with all of this?

Quote:
Let's see what people have their panties in a twist about next week

Exactly.

Even if this little tempest in a teapot goes beyond the immediate future, even if all these people approach the the assistant manager at the grocery store insisting they write little notes in their assistant manager notesbooks and self righteously complain to them about "homophobes" (that still irks me) and say "well, I for one won't be buying this product, might as well take away their shelf space.....MY children won't be ingesting this morally tainted product.....even if there's any sort of movement that slightly hurts their bottem line....who the hell do they think is being hurt?

Will Guido Barilla have to sell a few of his homes, stop driving his cars, loose his insurance, loose his job, have to pull his kids out of their schools which he won't be able to afford?

Even if enough people temporarily avoid this product, it's the factory worker, truck drivers, office workers, sales force, factory cleaning people that will have to worry about being laid off from their jobs.

It's their vendors who sell them their office supplies, cleaning supplies, temporary workers, raw material providers, etc. that will be hurting.

God forbid one gay person who works for Barilla gets laid off their job. Of course they would be so high minded as to say it's no matter that they lost their income, perhaps half or all of Their family income, if it's all in the name of this great and mighty throwing up of arms at their disgusting (former) employer.

I'd love to be in the shoes of one of their factory workers, or secretaries, who just got hired last month, after looking for work for a year and thinking "****, I hope I'm not out of a job again."

A comment was made....it was apologized for....what exactly do all you boycotters want exactly?

Would it make you happy if he publically flayed himself?

Would you be satisfied if X amount of people who work there lose their jobs? Have a commercial with a gay family aired so you can go to bed at night thinking "all's right with the world, Barilla is running an ad with gay people. I showed them."
Do you want Guido Barilla to jump in his time machine and go back to just prior he was asked this question, and read from some script you handed him the answer you would have wanted him to say?

What the **** exactly do you want?

Talk about much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Ingredients
500g plain flour
5 large eggs
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt

Place the flour on a clean work surface and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and add the oil and salt.

Use your fingers to whisk the eggs and gradually bring in the flour from the sides. Continue stirring and kneading until flour is incorporated. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to rest.

Welcome to the machine.

1 Reply

@fobvius,

Fobvius, I am sure I'm not alone in thanking you for your support in this important matter.

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@firefly,

firefly wrote:

Quote:
You really think people are going to forever boycott this product?

It's the flavor of the month.

Unless the aim of the boycott becomes clearer, other than to simply demonstrate some power to affect Barilla's sales in the short term, an effect that, at best, would likely have more impact in Italy than anywhere else, I'm not sure this is going to generate general interest beyond the current news cycle.

How long is a news cycle??
How do u know when a new cycle begins ?

David

1 Reply

@chai2,

I still don't buy yoplait yogurt, and that was just because they were in bed with Susan G Komen. I wouldn't dream of ever eating at chick-fil-a. So, yes, I think people who make conscious choices on who to give their money to will make a long-term, if not permanent, change.

1 Reply

@JPB,

That doesn't answer the question of what exactly you (the general you) want.
That was a serious question when I posed it.

Yoplait is jointly owned by General Mills and a French company Sodiaal.
Are you boycotting all General Mills products?
Have you bought any Pillsbury, Nature Valley, Green Giant, Häagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Gardetto, Cascadian Farms, Progresso products lately? Have you eaten at a Macaroni Grill?

Chick-fil-a is doing just fine thank you. They aren't going out of business. Maybe in the short term some of their servers lost jobs....too bad for those people huh?

As I mentioned before....If you want to boycott products, why not choose ones that a responsible for murder, rape (oh, I'm sorry, allegations) violation of labor laws and other human rights and environmental abuses?

It's great to take a stand. If you wish not to patronize a business, fine. However, it might be wise to consider for a moment "What would this company have to do to make me use them again?"

If the answer is "nothing".....well, that might be valid. However, it may be short sighted and spiteful.

I could say I find it hard to believe that people could, after an ill considered comment made by one person, totally damn an entire business and all the people that work for it, especially when the one person has made an apology.

However, I can't say I find it hard to believe at all. We all recently watched a member crucified over what started as a minor misunderstanding, a comment that misinterpreted and blown so out of proportion it had a life of it's own (title of thread - was jim nabors a goy? this poster, understanding it was a joke said "well he isn't a jew, gay I didn't know" as a total play on words on the title of the thread. The hideious dirty insults hurled at her were unbelieveable. I've been nailed to the cross myself here for daring to say I suspected someone might be a pedophile (apparantly it's impossible to know that, even when you watch interactions between people, and in the same post mentioning....and I mean mentioning as part of fully describing the scene in question, that the same person also appeared to be gay. For pages and pages I was told how ignorant I was, and didn't I know it's impossible to be both, and how could I ever tell if someone was gay anyway) I received multiple hate PM's from a member who is at time unstable, and apparantly off his meds.

In other words, I can really feel for this Guido Barilla. What the hell does he have to do/say to make it better? It wouldn't surprise me if he's received death threats over this.

So what can be done to make you ok with thsi?
Nothing? Too bad, you're spiteful.

Run gay themed commercials? Oh yeah, that'll show him. That'll make him appreciate gays.

At this point, the man is proabably thinking "get off my back already. I said something that offended, I apologized, what else do you want?"

So what DO you want?

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

How long is a news cycle??
How do u know when a new cycle begins ?

David

In todays world it's when Miley Cyrus gets a new haircut, or someone posts a video of a cute puppy saving the life of a kitten.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

...

ok, this is so far off being based in reality even I can't laugh at it, and I can laugh at just about anything.

So suddenly some executive is homophobic because he said they aren't going to change their marketing plan to include non-traditional families? You saying he/they are actually and actively prejudiced against gay people over this?

What if an overwhelmingly larger group of people.....college and university students, approached Barilla and said they would like to see them run ads highlighting young people sitting in dorm rooms and small apartments eating and enjoying their pasta?
College students are infamous for living on tight budgets, pasta is cheap, college students eat a ton of pasta.....maybe (I'm thinking proably) more than traditional families. In reality, they may be one of the strongest consumer bases for pasta consumption in this country.

So, if Barilla said to this group of people that are a much larger group then many others "no, we're going to stick with basing our ads on traditional family units, even though you may/probably purchase more of our product than they do", would that make them bigoted/prejudiced against college/university students? Woud that make them hate mongers against people who are trying to get a higher education, and carbing up on their product so they can have a full belly while studying?

Why doesn't Barilla show black families in their ads? Do they hate blacks as well?
Why don't they have commercials showing Asian families eating their product? I don't think I've seen any people in wheelchairs eating their pasta either. There is definite discrimination going on against people who are "differently abled"

They must hate dogs and cats and other house pets, because I know they don't show them in their commercials.

I'm going to stop using Barilla until they start showing a family with at least 1 person in a wheelchair eating dinner with a cat sitting on the window sill, and a dog licking its butt under the table.

Those bastards should be reported to the NAACP, the ADA, and the ASPCA. What the hell, report them to PETA as well. It's cruel they sell a product a dog doesn't want to eat.

ONCE AGAIN, I do I have to point out the actual creation and depiction of the people in the ads is NOT the point of contention here? You and Firefly are having a strangely difficult time getting the point here. The entire controversy isn't about the actual commercials but the CEO's and ultimately the companies openly public stance against homosexuality.

And I'm not the only one stating that here. The CEO took this opportunity to air out his personal views on the subject of homosexuality and turned it into his own bully pulpit.

All he had to say in answer to this question on the content of Barilla's pasta ad campaign is that style of ads appears to be the most productive for the company at this time.

Now I'm wondering if this guy is soon to be running for political office for an Italian conservative party considering he's now got political credibility from this intentional (not off the cuff where a lot of defenders here are saying) incident.

1 Reply

Major Corporations like Barilla should think twice before making hateful comments. The CEO of Barilla knows he made a major mistake. If 10% of people identify as LGBT, 40% more people support LGBT folks, they are called our "Straight Allies." That is half of the number of people who buy their product! On facebook a lot of people were talking about tossing their Barilla Pasta into the trash in protest, we took ours down to the local food pantry instead.

2 Replies

@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

Major Corporations like Barilla should think twice before making hateful comments.

But Barilla did not make hateful comments. It merely declined to recognize a right of same-sex couples to appear in its commercials --- justifiably so, since no such right exists. When confronted about its choice, Barilla correctly pointed out that the gay community can always buy other pasta. This may not be what you want to hear, jcboy, but saying things you don't want to hear is different from hating on you.

Jcboy wrote:

On facebook a lot of people were talking about tossing their Barilla Pasta into the trash in protest, we took ours down to the local food pantry instead.

Talk is cheap, especially on Facebook. We'll see how many people will actually follow through, and how many Christian conservatives will retaliate with a buying campaign. For what it's worth, Chick Fil-A's sales skyrocketed after the boycott of 2012. And unlike Barilla, Chick Fil-A had actively discriminated against gay customers and financed conservative organizations fighting against gay marriage. So my guess is that the Barilla boycott will fizzle just as the Chick Fil-A boycott did. But I'm happy to let the boycott surprise me.

1 Reply

@tsarstepan,

tsarstepan wrote:

And I'm not the only one stating that here. The CEO took this opportunity to air out his personal views on the subject of homosexuality and turned it into his own bully pulpit.

So....WHAT do you want him to do about it?

WHY do you want to boycott an entire companies products if this was simply his personal view?

WHAT does this man or the company have to do to get you back as a consumer?

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@jcboy,

jcboy wrote:

Major Corporations like Barilla should think twice before making hateful comments. The CEO of Barilla knows he made a major mistake. If 10% of people identify as LGBT, 40% more people support LGBT folks, they are called our "Straight Allies." That is half of the number of people who buy their product! On facebook a lot of people were talking about tossing their Barilla Pasta into the trash in protest, we took ours down to the local food pantry instead.

Yes, corporations like Barilla should think twice....but in this case apparantly they didn't, and have subsequently apologized for it.

Individuals should think twice about making hateful comments. If they don't however, and subsequently make an apology, what else are they supposed to do if no one will let them know how to make it better.

JC boy, I'm glad to see you around here again, I really, really admire you (not like you need my admiration, but I wanted to put that out there) My admiration is not effected by the fact that at one time I read, and was shocked by hateful comments you made to someone who was not, IMO intending any insult to you or anyone.
Am I to forever judge you by what I considered then, and now as a misstep on your part (whether you think it was or not)

What else are you expecting from Guido Barilla or the company to make this right? He admitted his mistake, he apologized....what do you want?

Or does it not matter, and you will forever refuse to buy their product?

So, you took a dollar box of angel hair and spent $2 of gas to take it to the food pantry. You did more harm to the environment as an individual than Barilla is going to suffer from losing your $20 dollars worth of business a year.

What do you want exactly jcboy?

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@Thomas,

My husband brought home the newspaper this morning to work on the crossword puzzle. I sat down and read the entire paper, except for the sports pages.

Not one mention of Barilla, and I live in a liberal city.

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Anybody up for boycotting Barilla Pasta?

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