PR Fail: Barilla Chairman Says He Will 'Never' Include Gays in Ads

Here’s a case of foot-in-mouth disease followed by a quick but debatably effective damage control operation. Yesterday Guido Barilla, chairman of the pasta company that bears his name, told an Italian radio show that his brand will “never” feature gay men or women in its ads and that “if the gays do not agree, they can always eat pasta from another manufacturer.”

Here’s his reasoning at work:

I would never do (a commercial) with a homosexual family, not for lack of respect but because we don’t agree with them.

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