Puritans Ban Mum's Mayonnaise ad!

I don't think either ad should have been banned. IMO the snickers ad depicted the kiss in a very sweet, passionate way followed by the men showing how idiotic it is for anyone to think that a kiss shared by men causes them to be less male. Both ads were hilarious. Some homophobic males who watched these ads showed the "ew, gross, ick" reaction to the kiss.

To quote ledroit, from the thread dealing with the double standard:
Girls Kiss It's Ok...Guys Kiss Then It's Gay?

http://www.lpsg.org/484088-post12.html

"Guys who freak about this have to be a little bit hysterical. But really going on about a kiss seems like the male equivalent of a bunch shrieking girls--just in a lower key. Maybe weak guys think being gay could be contagious, and even the sight of a gay kiss could contaminate their sexual orientations."

next episode on Bill O'Reily, Heinz pushing gayness on children.

...to air on the same night with "Factor Follow-up: Tinky Winky Revisited"

("Eh-oh!!)

I think that those responsible for getting this commercial banned completely missed the point.

This commercial is not "gay positive" (or whatever you want to call it)--if it was, they wouldn't be calling that man "mum,"--after all, we all know in the year 2008 that it is incorrect and inappropriate to refer to a gay man as a woman. So, if we were to take this commercial at face value, it would be reductive and derogatory towards the gay community.

However, I would submit to you all that not only does this commercial not endorse same-sex couples, it does not even depict one. Rather, in a surprisingly sophisticated bit of visual rhetoric, the advertiser is suggesting that if a housewife (the primary target of advertising for home products, mind you) purchases this brand of mayonnaise, then her sandwiches will have the same appeal as those of the fabled New York delicatessens. And, since this connotation is made in a humorous manner, the advertisers get a double whammy in terms of emotional impact. By substituting a deli owner for the mum, the commercial makes a clever appeal to ethos, and by doing so in a funny way, it makes a clever appeal to pathos (along with the traditional appeal to pathos of a mother's concern and care for her family). All in all, a rather effective commercial, I'd say... and nothing polemic about it at all.

I find this ketchup commercial to be far more problematic, as it clearly endorses (or at least makes light of) the serious problem of spousal abuse.

It also highlights the continuing double standard in this country--if that were a man throwing a ketchup bottle at a woman, the entire country would have been up in arms about it.

In spite of what I said earlier, I agree with your interpretation of the commercial, but I think the message went over most people's heads. People perceived it as an attempt to depict a same-sex couple (which doesn't make much sense really...why is the family British and why is a man called "Mum" and why would he be dressed like he works in a deli if he's in his own kitchen making lunch for his family?), hence homophobes complained about it while people who believe in gay inclusion are upset that the ad has been pulled.