Reuters: Most Read Articles: Italian pasta baron's anti-gay comment prompts boycott call

Reuters: Most Read Articles Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Refresh your vocabulary. Learn a new word everyday by subscribing to Word of the Day. A great tool if you're studying for the GRE, GMAT or LSAT, or simply want to enhance your lexicon. From our sponsors

Italian pasta baron's anti-gay comment prompts boycott call Sep 26th 2013, 15:10 Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:10am EDT * Barilla says he would not feature gay family in commercial * Gay, lesbian groups call for consumer boycott * Barilla apologises, emphasises women's "central role" ROME, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Guido Barilla, chairman of the world's leading pasta manufacturer, prompted calls for a consumer boycott on Thursday after telling Italian radio his company would never use a gay family in its advertising. "I would never do (a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we don't agree with them. Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role," Barilla, 55, said in an interview with Radio 24 on Wednesday. Barilla - one of the best known pasta brands around the world - is one of Italy's biggest advertisers, and for many years has used the image of a happy family living in an idealised version of the Italian countryside, with the slogan: "Where there's Barilla, there's home". In the interview, Barilla said he opposed adoption by gay parents, but was in favour of allowing gay marriage, which is not legal in Italy. His comment about advertising was in response to a direct question about whether he would ever feature a gay family in his company's commercials. If gays "like our pasta and our advertising, they'll eat our pasta, if they don't like it then they will not eat it and they will eat another brand," he said. Aurelio Mancuso, head of gay rights group Equality Italia, said Barilla's comments were an "offensive provocation" and called for a boycott of the company's pasta, sauces and snacks. "We accept the invitation from the Barilla owner to not eat his pasta," Mancuso said. Many Italians used social media to voice support for a boycott. Alessandro Zan, a gay member of parliament, said on Twitter: "You can't mess around with consumers, including gay ones." Barilla issued a statement on Thursday apologising, explaining that he was trying to say "simply that the woman plays a central role in a family." "Barilla features families in its commercials because it embraces anyone, and they have always been identified with our brand," he said. Spanish film star Antonio Banderas features in the latest publicity campaign for Barilla's Mulino Bianco cookies and breakfast cakes. They feature him baking biscuits with children and talking to a chicken called Rosita. (Reporting by Steve Scherer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions