Bowing To Bigotry, Heinz Pulls Ad!!

What the hell are people afraid of? The wrath of bigots? Clearly, Heinz is!!

Heinz pulls ad showing men kissing

Heinz has withdrawn its Deli Mayo TV ad that featured two men sharing a kiss and apologised to viewers after the advertising regulator received about 200 complaints that it was offensive and inappropriate.

The Heinz Deli Mayo ad has been pulled after less than a week on air after viewers complained to the Advertising Standards Authority that it was "offensive" and "inappropriate to see two men kissing".

Other complaints include that the ad was "unsuitable to be seen by children" and that it raised the difficult problem of parents having to discuss the issue of same-sex relationships with younger viewers.

"It is our policy to listen to consumers. We recognise that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it," said Nigel Dickie, director of corporate affairs for Heinz UK.

Dickie added that the campaign for the new Heinz Deli Mayo product, which was due to run for five weeks, was meant to be humorous and that the company apologised to anyone who felt offended.

The TV ad is the first by Heinz's new ad agency AMV BBDO since it won the £10m-a-year UK business last year.

AMV BBDO said that the concept behind the campaign is that the product tastes so good, "It's as if you have your own New York deli man in your kitchen."

Heinz's ad opens with a family on a normal morning routine with a young boy and girl getting ready for school and their father preparing for the office.

The young boy and girl go to the kitchen to get their sandwiches, which are being prepared by a man with a New York accent, dressed in a deli serving outfit, who they refer to as "mum".

When their father goes to get his sandwich he says to mum in the kitchen: "See you tonight love."

However, mum barks back "Hey, ain't you forgetting something?", at which point the two men share a kiss. Mum then sends the father off with the words: "Love you. Straight home from work, sweet cheeks."

The Heinz TV ad carried an "ex-kids" restriction, meaning it cannot be shown in or around children's programming, because Heinz Deli Mayo falls foul of Ofcom's TV ad restrictions relating to products that are high in fat, salt and sugar.

The ASA has not yet decided whether to investigate the complaints about the Heinz ad.

Heinz said it made the decision to stop airing the ad on Friday.

Offensive and inappropriate? It's no more offensive than seeing a man shoving his tongue down the throat of a woman, or a woman shoving her tongue down the throat of a man. It's no more offensive than being subjected to PDA by men and women.

The reality of the situation is simple. If this were a man and a woman sharing a kiss and loving words with each other, there wouldn't be a problem. There wouldn't have been a single complaint made. The ad would have never been pulled. And Heinz wouldn't have bowed to bigotry!!

It doesn't surprise me that bigotry is allowed to take place. It doesn't surprise me that bigots are allowed to control things. If the shoe were on the other foot they would be pissing and moaning, and rightfully so!! But since it's not, they think that being a bigot is perfectly acceptable.

I know who I will be boycotting!!

It's Called Bigotry!!

PANTY WAD ALERT!!!!! PANTY WAD ALERT!!!!! PANTY WAD ALERT!!!!!

Oregon has allowed gay couples to register as domestic partners. Oh the horror of it all!!

Domestic partnerships allowed in Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. - A state law allowing gay couples to register as domestic partners belatedly took effect Friday after a federal judge ruled the state's process of disqualifying petition signatures was consistent enough to be valid.

The state quickly announced that the domestic partnership applications were available online, and jubilant gay-rights activists predicted hundreds of couples would line up on Monday morning at county offices to register.

"We're a family. We've been waiting for this for a long time," said a beaming Cathy Kravitz of Portland. She said she and her partner of 21 years will be among those registering on Monday.

The law passed by the 2007 Legislature was to take effect when the new year started, but U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman suspended it to hear testimony about a petition drive that sought to put the law before voters.

The petitions fell 96 signatures short of the 55,179 needed to refer the law to the November 2008 ballot. The petitioners claim that county clerks rejected signatures improperly.

The Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that advocates for Christian legal issues, said it would appeal Mosman's ruling.

Fund lawyer Austin Nimocks had argued that a signature on a petition should have the same weight as a signature on a ballot, and that elections officials should have made more of an effort to contact voters whose signatures were disqualified.

But Mosman said signatures on a petition amounted to, "a call for an election, not a substitution for an election."

Testimony at the hearing turned on whether Oregon counties had a "common standard" to evaluate whether a voter's signature on a petition was valid. Mosman said the state had supplied enough evidence — if just barely — that a common standard existed in all 36 counties.

Petitioners plan to start another drive to put the domestic partnership law to a referendum.

"We want to vote — we think that our signatures mean something and it was an arbitrary move by the secretary of state's office," said Carolyn Wendell, who was a chief petitioner in the lawsuit.

Gay rights groups said they were prepared to continue fighting, both in court and on the ballot.

"The (Alliance Defense Fund) is an out-of-state group that could care less about the individual rights of folks here in Oregon," said Jeana Frazzini, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon. "They have certainly demonstrated that through the harm they have caused to same sex couples across this state because of the delay they've faced for the past month."

Gay couples who register as domestic partners will be able to file joint state tax returns, inherit each other's property and make medical choices on each other's behalf, along with a host of other state benefits given to married Oregonians.

In 2004, about 3,000 same-sex couples were granted marriage licenses in Multnomah County, the largest county in Oregon. But Oregon voters later approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage, and the state Supreme Court nullified the marriage licenses.

Oregon becomes the ninth state to approve spousal rights in some form for gay couples, joining Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, California, Washington and Hawaii. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry.

Could someone please explain to me how gay rights is a "Christian legal issue"? The last time I looked, so-called Christians wanted absolutely nothing to do with gay people. Now all of a sudden domestic partnerships among gay couples has become a "Christian legal issue"? I didn't know that the right to vote on whether or not gay people had the right to enter into a domestic partnership was strictly a Christian issue.

Furthermore, how can they even argue this matter as a "Christian" legal issue? Of the 55,083 signatures on this petition, how many were from "Christians"? They can't prove that every signature belonged to a "Christian" even if they went door to door and asked each signer. They could say yes. That doesn't mean that they're telling the truth.

This is not an issue of religious beliefs being stifled. This is about some BIGOTS, yes BIGOTS, trying to prevent people from living their lives as they want to. They were thwarted in their attempt to spread their bigotry and make it law. So now they're pissing and moaning!! Too bad!!