Wayne Besen, an executive director of gay advocacy group The Truth Wins Out, appeared on a CNN debate in the US last week discussing the Heinz ad.
In the debate he raised issue of how the AFA, a powerful American lobby group, had played a role in the strong stance Heinz US had adopted over the ad.
“They are a very powerful constituency, a very powerful lobby group. They are one of the top groups in the religious right in America,” Besen told MediaGuardian.co.uk.
He added that the AFA had gone after companies including Disney and Ford in the past.
“They have a lot of experience mobilising campaigns and boycotts. They are like a puritanical national nanny,” Besen said.
Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen appeared on CNN Headline News today to defend a British TV ad which featured gay men in parental roles, serving Heinz mayonnaise.
Besen criticized U.S. foodmaker H.J. Heinz for succumbing to homophobia and withdrawing the ad under pressure from the right-wing American Family Association. About 200 viewer complaints were received by British regulators.
Here’s the ad:
Truth Wins Out defended the ad:
The Headline News segment included Randy Sharp of the AFA, who claimed that the ad promoted a homosexual lifestyle: “What does mayonnaise have to do with homosexuals and their lifestyle?” Sharp claimed that 70,000 AFA supporters in the United States disagreed with the ad.
Business marketing analyst Dan Hill said Heinz was right to pull the ad. Hill said:
“In business you can never afford to forget that the bottom line is that ‘family values’ means ‘my family, not your family,’ and I think in the UK most households have traditional family structures.”
Besen responded that gay couples are well-accepted in the United Kingdom and that gay soldiers have been allowed to serve in British armed forces with great success.
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