Guido Barilla, the Chairman of the Barilla pasta company, has made a second apology over his comments on Italian radio earlier this week.
Barilla stated that the Italian company would never use a same sex couple in their advertising and that if gay’s didn’t like they could buy another brand.
Not only did Barilla’s comments spark a world wide boycott of the biggest pasta manufacturer in the world, but his first attempt at apologising saw him state that the company only wished to show ‘that a woman was central to the family’ – a comment that lead to a heated back and forth with the speaker of Italy’s lower house of parliament – creating a second controversy.
As the worldwide boycott of Barilla products has grown the Chairman has now posted a second apology, this time as a video.
“It is clear that I have a lot to learn about the lively debate concerning the evolution of the family,” said Mr Barilla in the video. The Chairman then made a pledge to meet with community groups, including those he has offended.
The criticism of Barilla’s remarks has continued to grow over the last 24 hours with international LGBT rights organisation All Out launching a petition calling on the chairman to commission an advertisement featuring a gay couple.
The US based organisation GLAAD have called on followers to ask their local grocery store to stop stocking the Barilla brand.
Rivals Make The Most of Controversy
Meanwhile rival brand Bertolli is making the most of Barilla’s controversy by posting a gay friendly image to it’s Facebook page. The Bertolli brand has previously utilised a same sex couple in it’s advertising.
OIP Staff
Support OUTinPerth
Thanks for reading OUTinPerth. We can only create LGBTIQA+ focused media with your help.
If you can help support our work, please consider assisting us through a one-off contribution to our GoFundMe campaign, or a regular contribution through our Patreon appeal.
