Real Life with Soup

Real Life with Soup

“Babe, I’m making soup, do you want any?” says a woman at the stove, heating up some Campbell Soup. That doesn’t seem like a very unusual opening to a soup commercial but when the camera pans, the viewer sees another woman.

Campbell Soup has just released another commercial in their Real Life campaign. Click here to see the quick fifteen second ad.

I thought when I Googled the ad, I would see many “conservative” or “Christian” sites recommending the boycott of Campbell Soup, but I didn’t.  The results of my Google search was minimal for negative or positive feedback.

However my Google search results did bring up Campbell’s Real Life ad in 2015 that featured two dads and a Star Wars theme. View that ad here. That promo received a boycott threat from the group One Million Moms. Campbell Soup issued a statement defending the ad and late night talk shows did segments about the controversy.

I would like to think that we’ve come a long way in the last two years and that a soup commercial featuring an LGBTQ couple is just not a big deal. But as I scroll through my google search results again, I see that in the last 6 months One Million Moms has protested LGBTQ ads from Chobani and Zales. What are your thoughts Hayden’s Listers?

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Highlights to be Reflective of All Families

Highlights to be Reflective of All Families

In October 2016, the children’s magazine Highlights was accused of neglecting LGBTQ readers. Kristina Wertz, an LGBTQ activist posted on Facebook about the lack of same-sex couples in Hello, a magazine published by Highlights aimed at children up to two years old. Wertz’s Facebook post said the following: “One of the reasons we appreciate Hello is the diversity represented — families of all races, interracial families, and grandparents. We are consistently disappointed, however, in the complete lack of same-sex parents in Hello magazine. . . . Since becoming a parent, I feel keenly aware of the messages kids’ books send to tiny minds. There is a deep need for books that positively reflect back the diversity of the world around us.”

Highlights responded to Wertz by saying that the conversations about same-sex families should be initiated by families. “We understand your wish to see your family’s situation represented in Highlights Hello. For much of our readership, the topic of same-sex families is still new, and parents are still learning how to approach the subject with their children, even the very little ones. We believe that parents know best when their family is ready to open conversation around the topic of same-sex families.”

Needless to say that response was met with outrage. Highlights apologized immediately, saying its initial response wasn’t “reflective of our values, intentions or our position.”

“We want to reiterate that we believe all families matter. We know that there are many ways to build a family, and that love is the essential ingredient,” according to the statement. “This conversation has helped us see that we can be more reflective of all kinds of families in our publications. We are committed to doing so as we plan future issues.”

The February issue of Highlights will include an illustration of a same-sex couple, two men loading a station wagon for a family trip in an item that invites readers to send letters. “Has your family ever taken a memorable family trip?” the text reads. “Tell us where you went and what you liked about it.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/01/06/highlights-childrens-magazine-to-publish-image-of-same-sex-couple-for-first-time-after-controversy/?utm_term=.fcd84f966495

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A Forever Home

A Forever Home

November was National Adoption Month. Every year in Connecticut, The Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Judicial Branch finalize hundreds of adoptions, typically 400 to 500 a year.

Connecticut’s DCF Commissioner Joette Katz said the recruitment of families has been re-designed to move away from a general message about the need for adoptive and foster families to one that focuses on a specific child who needs a home. “All around the country, states and counties struggle to achieve results through the conventional marketing recruitment methods that child welfare agencies have always used,” Katz said in a statement. “But when we focus on finding a family for one child at a time, it really brings a spotlight on the joys and rewards of adopting. The pictures and stories of the individual kids are that compelling.”

One of those adoptions provided a young girl named Indigo a forever home. Michael Brinckerhoff had met Indigo’s mother at a support group sixteen years ago and had only met Indigo twice. He received a call that a five-year-old’s mother had told DCF that she wanted her daughter to live with him.

Twenty-six hours after that call, Brinckerhoff and his partner, now fiance, Troy Saunders, went to pick up Indigo at a home in Danbury. Brinckerhoff said that he and Saunders were not thinking of having children of their own but after being with Indigo for 2 weeks, he told Saunders “She’s staying here; we’re going to figure this out.”

DCF’s initial goal, had been to reunite Indigo with her mother, but when that couldn’t happen, the couple began the adoption process. On April 4th, the adoption was official.

Brinckerhoff says that one night after putting Indigo to bed, she asked him to turn the light back on. “She looked at me and said, ‘Thank you for taking care of me, I love you.’”

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