WHERE SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING MEETS LGBT EQUALITY

Loblaw Companies, Crumbs/Miettes

Members:

Aired only in Quebec, a young man sits on a crowded bus between an older man and woman as he eats cookies. The woman keeps looking at him and the man is nervously tapping his fingers on his knee.

The woman looks around until she can't stand it anymore and finally grabs the crumbs off the young man's knee. He looks over at her like she's crazy but does nothing.

Then the man on his left is also prepared to pounce on the crumbs remaining on the guy's left knee. The older man starts to touch his leg and the other fellow sternly says (in French), "Don't even think of it!" then forcefully clears his knees of the crumbs.

This ad handles the man and woman as nearly equal by the young man's reactions, though the joke remains slightly more with the man touching him than with the woman.

User Comments
Md. Fuad Zain
The punchline doesn't seem to indicate that the young man is homophobic. His last act on the ad was clearing his lap of crumbs before either one of his neighbors could pick on it. You could argue that the punchline *may* be perceived as homophobic but that is a matter of perception. It could just as well be perceived as ageist, that the younger "bisexual" man would have nothing to do with old people of both sexes.

Mark Minervini
I hate a homophobic ad as much as the next flaming queer, but I wonder if the young man's reaction to the old man has less to do with the fact that another man is touching him than with his being fed up that complete strangers are touching him. Had the old man gone first, the young man's reaction might have been the same as the one he gave to the woman, and his reaction to the woman might have been to say "Don't even think of it!"

Seb P.
The ad is such a shame for Quebec. I am a Quebecer and I was ashamed of this ad telling people it's wrong to have a man touch you. It's pretty weird, considering we're like number 2 for gay parties and openess worldwide.

Maximus
I agree completely with Mark Minervini. I don't see homophobia here.