Was Heinz right to pull its male kiss Deli Mayo ad?

Heinz has pulled a television ad for its Deli Mayo brand off the air less than two weeks after it launched following almost 200 complaints about a kiss between two men in the 30-second spot.

The food giant has not been forthcoming in giving reasons for pulling the ad -- created by AMV/BBDO. Instead, the company simply said it was listening to consumer feedback and apologised to anyone who "felt offended".

The ad watchdog has not yet decided if it will investigate the complaints, which have described the ad as "offensive" and "inappropriate" for children.

Are the complaints justified and is Heinz right to respond to them? Or is the company risking an even bigger PR backlash for removing the ad from the airwaves?

Watch the ad here. 

What a shame it's a good ad. Heinz should have held its ground and stuck it out. It's disappointing to see it fold so quickly after running with the ad in the first place. 

Heinz made the right decision - I think they had to react because of the large number of people complaining about it. They had to listen to consumers.

However, those people who complained are idiots with nothing better to do. The ad was harmless and a bit of fun. It's a shame Heinz couldn't get full use out of it.

They didn't have to do anything. They responded to the vocal minority. Besides a couple of hundreds is hardly anything to worry about.  

They shouldn't have pulled the ad. They claim to be listening to their consumers but what about all the people who will be offended that they have chosen to pull it? Heinz must have expected a few complaints and should have stuck with it.

"200 hundred complaints ? Baaa is that all ?

:-D hahahhaaaaa 

sad. 

I agree, I'm offended and bloody angry.  It was a harmless advertisement.

Definitely right to pull the add. An awkward theme that many people find discomfort with should not be just assumed to be OK for millions of viewers. It was in badly concieved and in poor taste.

Really Roy? I find feminine hygiene products, such as stool softeners and incontinence pads, somewhat discomforting, but I don't ask for every ad featuring them to be banned - even when they're shown at dinner time, or even more shockingly, during breakfast.

 Are there specific stool softeners for women ?

:-D 

Surprisingly, yes: http://www.dulcoease.co.uk

Men are generally too tough to worry about hard stools - they just push on through - unless they eat Heinz Deli mayo, then they're gay, apparently.

:\

 Excellent !

Giggle. 

Heinz were right to pull the ad, it was weird. I had to watch it twice to understand what was going on. If the ad had been about two gay men and deli mayo in their lives then they would have been wrong to pull the ad because of complaints about two men kissing. However this ad was a heterosexual man kissing his wife, only his wife looked and sounded like a man but the kids called him mum. If the ad was meant to be translated as “turn your kitchen into a New York deli with Heinz mayo” then the kiss is inappropriate – you don’t kiss the deli man before heading off to work. If the ad was to be interpreted as “make sandwiches as good as in a New York deli at home” implying the transformation of wife to deli man in her own kitchen then they should have had transformed the man into a wife at the end of the ad for the kiss. This would have made much more sense and given some logic to the campaign.

Louise Mason:

This would have made much more sense and given some logic to the campaign.

And made it boring and unfunny. Yeah, that's a good idea.