SWEET TOOTH
British confectionery company Cadbury sweetened things up by featuring a gay couple in its most recent ad aired in the UK and online. Celebrating the “Golden Goobilee” — five-decade anniversary — of its creme egg, the fun and quirky video advert features various people eating and licking the gooey confectionery. The gay couple appears toward the end for a few seconds. Dubbed “sharers”, the couple passionately shares a piece of creme egg, biting through it and letting a sugary white goo dangle between them. It’s probably not the safest activity to attempt during the pandemic, but it’s definitely sweet and revolutionary.
The video’s comment section on YouTube is turned off. But on the internet, responses were, of course, quite predictable. Homophobes went into overdrive calling it inappropriate for explicitly promoting homosexuality while others take issues that such display of affection isn’t suitable at all on television regardless of the sexual orientation portrayed. Elsewhere, this inclusion is applauded and praised.
Recently, Doritos Mexico also released an ad called El Mejor Regalo or The Best Gift. At a little over two minutes, the short-film ad sees a father coming to terms with his son bringing home a boyfriend for the holiday but passing him off as a friend (Happiest Season, is that you?). Noticing the closeness between the two young men (they didn’t do a very good job at hiding it), the father sought advice on Reddit on what he should do.
“How can I let them know that everything is OK?” he asked. The event is said to have been inspired by a true story.
Ending on a heartwarming note, the father and son had a talk in the kitchen before they embraced. The best gift is indeed accepting people as they are.
There has been greater inclusion of LGBTI characters and storyline in commercial advertisement — and also in products that target the LGBTI community directly — in recent years. The debate on rainbow capitalism is for another day. For now, we can appreciate the visibility.