An upscale Russian supermarket has come under fire from both sides after it posted – and then removed – an ad featuring a lesbian couple and their kids shopping at the store.
The health food chain VkusVill rolled out a new ad campaign on Wednesday, the final day of gay pride month, and included an ad showing the family, Aluma and her daughters Mila and Alina, with the mom’s girlfriend, Ksyusha, the BBC reported.
“We think it would be hypocritical not to talk about the real families among our shoppers. We advise you to weigh up all the pros and cons, before reading this article,” the company said in a message.
But by Sunday, the business had removed the ad and replaced it with a statement explaining that it had “hurt the feelings of a big part of our customers, employees, partners and suppliers.”
Among those offended was Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of the Kremlin-backed state broadcaster RT.
“[VkusVill] lost the audience of traditionalists like me and now they have severely disappointed the audience they flirted with. Bring them new marketing specialists or something,” she said.
Ruling party lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, one of the chief proponents of the controversial 2013 law, also called the ad “filthy” in a post on the Vkontakte social network.
“The goal of our company is to enable our customers to receive fresh and tasty products on a daily basis, and not to publish articles that reflect any political or social views,” the supermarket responded to the backlash in a statement.
“In no way did we want to become a source of strife and hatred,” it said, adding that the “mistake” was a result of “the unprofessionalism of individual employees.”
Company founder Andrei Krivenko and 11 top managers concluded the statement by saying, “We sincerely apologize.”
The offending ad — which was marked as aimed at people aged 18 and above — appeared on VkusVill’s website under the slogan “Recipes for family happiness.”
VkusVill translates into English as “Tasteville.”
The supermarket then replaced the same-sex couple in the ad with a conventional family.
A 2013 Russian law bans gay marriage and adoption by gay couples. The country, where homophobia is prevalent, also bans any content deemed to be spreading gay “propaganda” to minors, according to the BBC.
Now, VkusVill has received thousands of critical comments for removing the ad.
“Will people really boycott curd snacks and cherries because of lesbians? Of course not… But now both sides hate the retailer,” social influencer Ksenia Sobchak said on Instagram, according to the outlet.
Writer and director Michael Idov said in a tweet: “The most hellish aspect of the VkusVill story is that there is now a family in this world, that [VkusVill] with the help of media and social networks practically doxed [made public], then added that it is so scary and unacceptable that it needs to APOLOGISE just for their photo. Unimaginable.”
Mila, one of the daughters in the ad, said she had been subjected to homophobic abuse and online “threats to murder my family,” but added: “I also received just as many messages of support.”