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2 September 2013updated 22 Oct 2020 3:55pm

Flora: spreading homophobia?

Is coming out to your father really the same as shooting him in the heart?

By Media Mole

When did margarine get so homophobic? Flora have published an advert which seems to compare your child coming out as gay to a bullet through the heart:

On a pink background, the advert depicts the words 'uhh dad, I'm gay' fashioned into the shape of a bullet as it flies through the air towards a human heart made of china.

The bullet says “uhh dad, I’m gay” and the message at the bottom says “You need a strong heart today”.

The campaign is by Lowe + Partners, Johannesburg, but it’s Unilever, the consumer goods firm that owns Flora, that has come under fire from a number of gay rights groups. Interestingly though, the group also includes ice-cream makers Ben & Jerry’s which changed their Cookie Dough flavour to “I dough, I dough” last month in support of same sex marriage.

Update

A Unilever spokesperson said:

“This advert was prepared by an external agency in South Africa and was not approved by anyone at Unilever. The advert is offensive and unacceptable and we have put an immediate stop to it. Unilever is proud of the support that our brands have given to LGBT people, including our recent campaign for Ben & Jerry’s on equal marriage.”

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