Barilla may be one of the most famous brands of pasta, but its fan base may be about to get smaller.
Guido Barilla, the 55-year-old chairman of the company, sparked outrage when he said that gay families would not be appearing in advertisements while he is in charge.
“I would never do (a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we don’t agree with them. Ours is a classic family where the woman plays a fundamental role,” Reuters reports Mr. Barilla as saying in a radio interview Wednesday.
According to Reuters, the gay rights group Equality Italia already has called for a boycott of the pasta over Mr. Barilla’s “offensive provocation.”
“[If gay people] like our pasta and our advertising, they’ll eat our pasta, if they don’t like it then they will not eat it and they will eat another brand,” Mr. Barilla said during the radio interview.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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