Doritos to Face Boycott in Israel After Featuring Gay Commercial

Snack-maker reportedly not planning to take down advertisement released ahead of Family Day, which was condemned by some conservative religious Jews 

By TOI STAFF

Times of Israel

 

Doritos is facing boycott calls from some conservative religious Israeli Jews after the chip manufacturer released an advertisement featuring gay and lesbian couples.

The ad was posted last week on Doritos’ Hebrew-language social media accounts ahead of Family Day, or Yom HaMishpacha, which will be marked this Tuesday. The holiday began in Israel as Mother’s Day but was later expanded to honor the contribution of all parents in raising a family.

The ad begins by showing members of Israeli families, as a narrator says the family is not something one chooses. 

 

“But there are some families that do choose to be families. There are families created by the complex reality,” the narrator says, as the screen shows a pair of women with two babies and a young girl and another pair of women holding a photo of another woman.

Depicting a single father with his two children, the narrator says some people “have remained alone in this reality.”

“There are families that traveled to the other side of the world on the path to [becoming a] family,” the narrator says, as two men are shown with a toddler.

Also shown is a mixed religious-secular couple alongside their kids.

“There are many families and they are all special and even if it takes courage to dare in all choices, all families deserve to be families,” the narrator says in conclusion. 

The release of the ad was met with calls from some to boycott Doritos.

“For the sake of the mental and spiritual health of the coming generations, we must boycott Doritos, which is trying to influence the natural family group by advertising its products,” Aryeh King, a far-right deputy mayor of Jerusalem, wrote on Twitter.

A rabbi in the West Bank settlement of Efrat also urged a boycott of Doritos, urging his followers not to associate with “evil.”

“It is forbidden to recognize those who live like this as a family,” Rabbi Baruch Efrati said.

The editor of the religious Zionist B’Sheva weekly said snack manufacturers should not weigh in on “controversial moral issues.” 

“Judaism only recognizes a family with a man and a woman. I won’t get involved in the life of someone who chooses to live differently, but I won’t give my money to a company that uses it to harm my values, Jewish family values,” Emanuel Shilo tweeted.

Despite the pushback, Channel 12 news said Doritos did not plan to remove or change the ad.

“We respect all views, beliefs, and the diversity of Israeli society and have no intention to harm any group,” Doritos said in response to the criticism.