Campbell’s Soup Released an Adorably Geeky Commercial With Two Gay Dads
Luke Skywalker only had one father, and they didn't exactly get along.
But the father-son bond between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker is the subject of a brand new ad from Campbell's Soup.
The spot opens on a shot of the new Star Wars Campbell's soup can, then goes into a father feeding his son, Cooper, spoonfuls of soup while doing his best Darth Vader impression. He repeats the now-infamous (and misquoted) line "Luke, I am your father."
From outside the frame, another voice begins to say the same thing. The camera zooms out, and we see that a second dad is feeding Cooper as well.
The first dad ribs the second dad on his lackluster Vader impression, and the three continue their mealtime in adorable peace.
"We make real food for real people," said Yin Woon Rani, Campbell Soup vice president of marketing activation, said in a press release. "This campaign holds a mirror up to the modern American family, because we know that people respond to brands that understand them and show life how it is, in all its glorious and joyous imperfections."
One Million Moms, in true form, said the commercial "glorif[ies] this unnatural marriage" as an attempt to "desensitize viewers" to depictions of LGBT people, or as they put it, "sin"
Depicting same-sex couples in advertising has become a trend in recent years. In 2012, J.C. Penney featured two moms in a Mother's Day advertisement. After a backlash from groups like One Million Moms, J.C. Penney responded with a Father's Day ad with two dads. That, combined with hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman, gave the company a gay-friendly image (though the CEO behind many of those decisions was later fired for plummeting sales).
This January, both Hallmark and Tiffany & Co. got in on the same-sex ad action. With a buying power that tops $800 billion annually, the LGBTQ market is one that advertisers are clearly trying to court, even though representation is still an issue.