Gay Creme Egg advert won’t be taken off air no matter how hard snowflakes complain
Gay couple share Cadbury’s Creme Egg in new advert. (YouTube)
A Cadbury Creme Egg advert featuring a gay kiss isn’t going anywhere, with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) confirming it hasn’t broken any rules.
A petition against the Creme Egg advert has attracted more than 30,000 signatures, calling on the ASA to ban the commercial because it is causing “gratuitous offence” to members of the Christian community and is “selling sex to children”.
However, the ASA said in a statement Monday (21 February) it will not be taking any further action on complaints against the advert.
A spokesperson for the ASA said the regulator had received and assessed 40 complaints about the gay kiss in the Cadbury advert, but does not “consider that the advertising rules have been broken”.
The spokesperson said that if it were submitted, the petition would be considered a “super complaint” and addressed “as a whole”, rather than as 30,000 individual cases.
“However, if we were to investigate an ad following a letter or petition, we would like to signal in any published ruling how many complaints were attached to that petition/letter,” the statement, first reported by Campaign, added.
The Creme Egg advert in question features people enjoying the treat in a variety of ways, including a same-sex couple kissing and then sharing the treat’s gooey centre.
The commercial was celebrated for its inclusion of LGBT+ people by many, but has since been targeted by an outraged petition
“Given that children often copy what they see on screen, the advert constitutes a form of grooming, exposing children to inappropriate and graphic sexual content,” it bizarrely claims.
The petition accused the manufacturer of “hoping to cause controversy and escape criticism” by highlighting members of the LGBT+ community “by claiming that any objections must be rooted in homophobia”.
It further claims that “members of the LGBT community have also expressed their dislike of this campaign”, and says that “if the couple in question were heterosexual, the advertisement would likely be prohibited, given the sexually explicit and graphic nature of the kiss”.
In response to the petition, Cadbury said it has “always been a progressive brand that spreads a message of inclusion, whether it is through its products or brand campaigns”.
A spokesperson said in a statement: “We are proud of our Golden Goobilee advert which celebrates the many ways that everyone can enjoy a Cadbury Creme Egg.
“To illustrate this and showcase the joy our products bring, a clip of a real-life couple sharing a Cadbury Creme Egg was included in the advert.”
