A reply to Barilla

Is Barilla off the hook?

I have received a reply to my blog about Coles advertising barilla. This is it;

"We are not a homophobic company. Take a look at the steps we've taken since 2013 if you'd like."

Now we cant blame Barilla for the short response as they responded on Twitter. They included a link to this Pro-Barilla article:

Human Rights Campaign says Barilla has turned around its policies on LGBT

 Now I'm going to try my best to ignore the tone of that article, it comes off a 'little disrespectful' towards the LGBT community, its nothing outright, just the phrasing and word use. It certainly wouldn't be the article i would send out if i were trying to convey sincerity, but there may be something lost in the translation which is why I'm giving it a pass.

Basically The article is saying that 'Barilla has stopped discriminating against LGBTI workers', which is awesome, but it should have been the default from the beginning. It should be the default for all businesses anyway. I applaud any company that doesn't discriminate, but after what Barilla said they need to do more than just stop discriminating against their workers.

The article also mentions a 'donation to the Tyler Clementi Foundation' which looks like a good cause. I am all for stoping bullying and homophobia, any steps towards reducing youth suicide are good steps indeed.
I am uncertain if this was a one off donation, i had a lot of trouble finding what charity's Barilla donate to or are partnered with. After the reply from Barilla i went looking again and still came up empty handed.

Donating money to worthy causes is again admirable but it is expected that a large company will do this as part of their corporate responsibility program. It doesn't go far enough in countering the discrimination and harm caused by Barialla's offensive comments.

That is where the article i was sent to ended, i did find on a Barilla related website that in 2014 Barilla did a REVIEW OF THE CODE OF ETHICS AND MANAGEMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

While i thank Barilla for sending me that link, i had actually read that information in another article, before writing my initial blog post. 

I want to clarify that when i was offended by the Barila advertisement i did check up on Barilla when i got back home. I looked for three things.

My criteria:

1. Has Barilla extensively used LGBTI family's in its TV advertisements?
    
2. Has Barilla joined the corporate support for marriage equality?
   
   
3. Is Barillas website or 'printed advertising' very inclusive of LGBTI family's?

 Findings:

1. I could find no Barilla tv advertisements that were LGBTI inclusive. This should have been a no-brainier, this is essential to counter the comments that the Barilla CEO made. Every single Barilla tv spot should have LGBTI family's, I found none. Without doing this,it makes everything else seem extremely disingenuous.
   
   
2. I could not find Barilla among the company's that have pledged corporate support for marriage equality.
   
   
3. The only family picture i could find on Barillas website was the one below (fair use/review). Now the family shown could be LGBTI i suppose, a very masculine woman in a lesbian couple, or a very effeminate man in a gay male couple, perhaps one or even both of the adults are trans? 
   
   

   

   
   
   But even so that's not good enough, the couple needs to be obviously LGBTI to show that Barilla now includes us in its definition of family. Out of the one picture of family i could find, Barilla has failed to be inclusive. That is a 100% failure rate, i mean really, if your going to only have one family make it obviously LGBTI.  
   
   
   There was another possible couple in a Barilla related site, but honestly i could not determine if they were meant to represent mother and son or a couple, so i exclude them, and if we do consider them a couple, that is two non LGBTI family's out of two.
   
   
   Their Facebook page was also lacking in any noticeable inclusiveness.
   
   

That is why i wrote the blog post, that is why i am still boycotting Barilla. It is not about if they are being homophobic to their workers, it is about makeing amends for the harm they have caused, about the company promoting diversity instead of discrimination, and about proving that their definition of family now includes their insulted, scorned and rejected LGBTI customers.

 Now if i am wrong and my 'google-foo' has failed me, please comment and 'link me up' so i can write a correction.

One also wonders why no apology was given, a simple 'we are sorry for the offense we caused, we are trying to make amends' would have served them better as a reply. 

Also why was the CEO's 'terrible apology' removed from Facebook? 

Correction: I was originally unable to find the "apology' on Facebook and after a few of the external links i found showed "page not available" messages i wrongly assumed that the "apology" had been take down, this is not the case you can find it here: "Facebook Apology" My apologies for providing incorrect information.

I remain unconvinced; if you are also unconvinced, you could do some or all of the following;

• Don’t like the Barilla Facebook page.
• Like the Boycott Barilla Facebook Page.
• Don’t buy Barilla products, take up their challenge and "eat someone else s pasta".
• Let Coles know you don’t support homophobia and bigotry. You can do this on the Coles Website (you will need a receipt) and on their Facebook.
• Let Status Quo know you don’t support homophobia and bigotry, on their own website and on their Facebook page.
  
  
  
  
  

  Thank you for supporting equality

   

  A friend said to me, and i have to agree.
  "Wouldn't it have been cool if Barilla took the opportunity to supply stand-ups of a gay couple with a child to Coles to replace their Status Quo ones?"