As I've said, they are a loathsome company that takes your money, for their fried pieces of bird flesh, and gives it anti-LGBT groups that work overtime to deny gay men and women equality. Any equality. All equality.
That said, Dan Cathy and his special brand of deep-fried hatred have the right to do what he chooses with his money, and he has the right to spout his personal beliefs of in tolerance and bigotry masked as Bible-thumping love for all things Christian.
See, if I can rag on the Dan Cathys of the world, they can rag on me, too. So, I don't have a problem with what Chick-fil-A-hole does with their money, I would just ask that anyone and everyone who disagrees with Cathy simply stop eating at Chick-fil-A-hole. Now, of course, many won't because they ask for extra sauce to cover the taste of homophobia, but can you forgive this:
Dingdingding. We have a winner.
Chick-fil-A-hole is owned by a homophobic bigot, so the gay slur in the ad makes perfect sense, no? Not so fast says Steve Robinson, the company's executive vice president and chief marketing officer:
"This is an advertisement that a locally owned and operated restaurant has been using for the past five years to promote Chick-fil-A's catering options during the holidays. It was simply a play on words referring to the traditional holiday food, and the restaurant had no intention of offending anyone whatsoever. We regret the flyer may haven been taken out of context."And there you have it. Straight from an A-hole's mouth. Robinson is actually asking you to believe that they are simply saying that only a "dried-fruit-and-nut cake" wouldn't like their party platters! Doesn't that make all the sense in the world? It's just a play on a seasonal dessert!
Except it doesn't make sense. What makes sense it that, whoever came up with the idea, meant it as a gay slur, and tried to play if off as though it isn't. And anyone, anyone, who doesn't know that "fruitcake" is a gay slur is lying, delusional, or stupid.
If any other company had used this term, like say McD's or Burger King, I don't think people would have noticed. But when the company that funds anti-LGBT causes with their profits uses it, they meant it.
Seriously.
Let me make this perfectly queer: Stop.Eating.There.
The bad taste here is, if it's true that the ad has been running for 5 years, to run the ad NOW after the past year. Maybe it's true that it originally ran as a play on those holiday bricks but to run it now changes the meaning from pun to slur.
ReplyDeleteThis ad also proves two more points - that what the top of the company does, does seep into all areas of a company (except for that one franchise that I just read about) and that many people are clueless as to how bigoted they really are (many know, many don't know differently).
BTW - I can't wait for you Michele is Here post. I can see it now: MICHELE IS...
ReplyDeletein the toilet
in jail
invisible
in a Gay Pride Parade
in an unemployment line
at the eye doctor
in an insane asylum
they write themselves.
But do they regret using the term? Or do they regret Christmas advertising two weeks early on perishable food items?
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely not the latter. Asshats.
I've lost friends and family over the whole CFA debacle. It stopped being about the food (let's face it, their sandwiches aren't THAT much better than KFC, etc. and are more expensive) and became a call to support the Christian "lifestyle".
ReplyDeleteThere are few times in life when you can do or say something that will make a difference to your friends ... when you don't, they notice.
Don't just boycott CFA ... boycott everyone that patronizes them. Eventually, they'll understand that being guilty-by-association has its consequences.