“HOMOPHOBIC” FLORA AD GENERATES CONTROVERSY
A South African created ad campaign for Flora margarine is causing controversy around the world over claims that it’s homophobic.
The advert depicts a ‘heart’ made of ceramic china over a pink background. A bullet with the words “Uhh, Dad I’m gay” is shown heading for the heart.
The ad, presumably punting the benefits of Flora margarine when it comes to heart disease, states: “You need a strong heart today.”
While some argue that it’s humorous and tongue in cheek, others see the ad as equating coming out with something that could cause a heart attack or to being shot in the heart.
The controversial campaign has caused a firestorm and has been highlighted in the international media, including the UK’s Daily Mail, and has been slammed on Twitter and other social networks.
One woman tweeted: “I will never ever buy Flora again after seeing the ad equating being gay with a bullet to the heart. I am so angry right now.”
A man commented: “You know you’re bigoted when: you manage to sneak #homophobia into a margarine ad. #flora”.
The ad was created by the Johannesburg branch of Lowe + Partners and has apparently been published in South Africa.
Christina Engela from SA GLAAD told Mambaonline that the advert is “an insensitive take on a sensitive issue”.
She said: “Reducing a complex issue like coming out to your parents to a literal heart-breaking emotional trauma and comparing that to heart-disease or even a heart-attack, is really saying being gay is shocking and really creates a negative and judgmental image of a gay person coming out.”
Engela further commented that linking coming out with a bullet was particularly inappropriate in South Africa, where anti-gay hate crimes are common.
“I find the revelation disturbing that this item was created and marketed by a South African ad agency – which should be aware of the kind of message they are sending out.
“I have no idea what kind of message they (or the client, being Flora) were hoping to send, but if it wasn’t meant to offend, they failed in their task,” she added.
Mambaonline attempted to contact Lowe + Partners but was unable to get a comment from representatives who were either busy on the phone, in meetings or out of the office.
What do you think? Is the Flora advert homophobic or witty?
This is obviously meant to be tongue in cheek. I’m the first to call out homophobic B.S. but this was definitely not so intentioned. Geez, over sensitive much?
I read the ad as being about the son’s heart – bracing for a reaction from his dad that could break his heart. If that’s the case it’s quite sweet and very sad. If that’s not what they meant, though, then it’s horrifically homophobic
I am gay and find this funny. I think we should be careful that we do not become overly sensitive. I find the description of the ad funny, but I have not yet seen the ad.
Strange reading of the ad, Al. The heart pictured is obviously meant to be the father’s. Middle-aged men are at the greatest risk of heart attacks and margarine companies have invented a health benefit for their product (lowering cholesterol or some crap). The ad’s “humour” (yes we know it’s tongue-in-cheek Louis but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean we can’t consider what it means) is predicated on the idea that a son coming out is the sort of shocking news that could cause a father a heart attack. They are propping up stereotypes of dads, re-enforcing the status quo, the way all the worst advertising tends to do. Homophobic might be an extreme word, but it’s certainly thoughtless and unoriginal.
It’s a print ad, Danie, all you have to do to see it is scroll up and look at the image. If you claim not to have seen it, that does rather beg the question of how you found it so funny?
what do you expect from a backwards racist country?
Not homophobic at all, the reaction to this advert is proof of how liberal and degenerate we have become. Homosexuality is by nature counter-productive and promotes anal-sex, which is unclean and spreads disease. Through liberal media and petty sensitivities, we have become conditioned to either accept or be attacked by the “I’m offended” hordes. A natural response to such news is shocking, because it is unnatural, and what is even more unnatural, is not being shocked by such news. In my honest opinion, homosexuality should not even be promoted, but treated as a hormone imbalance, which it is. No problem with this ad, good job Flora, for making our hearts stronger when being confronted with shocking news 🙂
I don’t know any gay people who eat margarine. we have taste. And if the heart is supposed to be the father’s, I find it a little camp…. Overall they clearly tried to be way too intellectual here, if nobody can figure out exactly what the message is. Especially for a margarine ad. Margarine! good heavens
Danie, really? Ignorant much?
We seem to forget that the ad was put together by a creative who, like the foot soldier in a war or the police officer walking the beat/confronting rioters, is not always thinking of the bigger picture of how his ad could be interpreted. I work with teams of white (Caucasian) creatives who come up with ideas that I see as totally un-PC…but I have learnt not to challenge such ideas as many a times even the black (African) clients have loved the idea. Who am I after all but a mere social scientist? The creative Zeitgeist does not sprout from me!
50 years ago it didn’t matter that the woman was depicted as a home maker or that gays were limp wristed wimps, that black people (even in the US) were portrayed the way they were. But we live in a different world today where every individual’s sensitivities are now given a platform on the internet. The creative agency could have been made up of bigoted homophobes intent on subtly bashing the gays that they are constantly told to be careful of. Or they could have just thought what family situation has the quality of causing dramatics and anguish while garnering humour all at the same time? Gay drama of course. The bullet could have equally been about a fat heterosexual being told the elevator taking him to the board meeting of his career had broken down and now he was in line for a stress induced heart attack (I hear all the stair master junkies snickering at the thought of them not even breaking into a sweat at doing 20floors like they do just to warm up) or about a white (Caucasian) man at a township House party suddenly seeing himself in the mirror and seeing that what he was doing was not as graceful as his black counterparts but looked more like an albatros trying to swim through an oil spill. But hey! How many people (not just creatives) ever think that stuations like these are back-slappingly funny AND also could be offensive? Do the few who see such ads or representations as funny sit back in silence for fear of being insensitive? Or does someone raise their hand and ask the question that might not have been asked or brushed aside in the creative process…
And of course those who worship at the alter of commerce will blame so many other factors when their brand goes into free-fall coz of course what’s a little tongue-in-cheek print ad that gets people giggling in mirth?
I think it is offensive, I wish someone from Flora (Uni Lever) will comment here, but they probably won’t, because no matter what they sey they will be crucified from both sides.