 Campbell’s Soup Company’s ad featuring lesbian couple, son |
The Campbell’s Soup Company purchased a pair of two-page advertisement spreads in one of the nation’s leading pro-homosexual magazines, including an ad highlighting a lesbian couple and their son, reports the American Family Association.
The advertisement for Campbell’s product Swanson’s broth, the AFA reports, appears in both the December 2008 and January 2009 issues of The Advocate, a magazine that touts itself with the line, “For 40 years, setting the standard in LGBT journalism.”
The AFA, however, objects to the ad, particularly the frame that depicts the lesbian couple and their son, claiming that the soup company is contributing to homosexual advocacy.
“Not only did the ads cost Campbell’s a chunk of money,” writes AFA Chairman Donald Wildmon in an email alert, “but they also sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support.”
Wildmon is seeking people who will contact the soup company and ask Campbell’s to “stop supporting the gay agenda.”
The particular frame of the advertisement that has elicited Wildmon’s reaction is titled “home for the holidays” and features a brief story about chef Leah Forant, her lesbian partner Carolyn Montgomery and their son, four-year-old Elliott “Eli” Montgomery Forant.
Forant’s website explains that the couple is married, and the soup advertisement claims that her New York City restaurant is “a place for old and new friends to gather as a ‘found family’ for food prepared with care.”
The advertisement features Forant and Montgomery smiling down at young Eli as he looks at a box of Swanson’s broth.
“This holiday season,” the ad concludes, “serve a special meal no matter the size and structure of your family.”
According to the Campbell’s Soup website, the company’s businesses strive to avoid advertising that disparages any religious, ethnic or political group or that “implies that Campbell supports specific points of view.”
For Wildmon, however, spending advertising dollars in a magazine called “The Advocate” and promoting a lesbian couple and their son with the line “no matter the structure of your family” clearly indicates the company’s support of redefining traditional family norms to fit a “specific point of view.”
“Campbell Soup Company,” writes Wildmon, “has openly begun helping homosexual activists push their agenda.”
A spokesperson for Campbell’s, however, explained that the advertisements are simply an attempt to reach a wide audience.
“Campbell’s has been in business since 1869,” spokesperson Anthony Sanzio told WND. “For more than century people from all walks of life have enjoyed our products. We will continue to try to appeal to all people in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them.”
