LGBTQ representation in advertising - Cadbury's Creme Egg cracks it

The only shocking thing about the latest Cadbury's Creme Egg ad is that it seems way too soon to be talking about Easter, especially after the stay-at-home Christmas and New Year we just had!

Nevertheless, I want to take a moment to highlight this ad in case you haven't seen it.

It has been satisfying to see the positive reaction of the press, including some tabloids which have clearly changed their minds about such things over the past decade or so. Yes, it is still so noteworthy that we are talking about it. Gone are the days when the mainstream press would have pounced on the opportunity to attack an ad that dared show a same-sex couple engaging in flirtatious behaviour. Behaviour that wouldn't raise an eyebrow (or quill) if an opposite-sex couple were shown engaging in it.

Egging on positive change

The new Creme Egg campaign looks back at ‘five delicious decades’ of the Creme Egg, and all the different ways fans choose to eat it. 

I tend to bite the top off, since you're asking. But the ad shows real-life couple Callum Sterling and Dale K Moran who are "sharers" (as opposed to lickers, bakers, eggsperts, dippers or discrEATers). They are shown dancing on a rooftop sharing a Creme Egg, mouth to mouth. The VO announces: "yeah, we are down with that!"

Many viewers were scandalised by the thought of sharing a Creme Egg with anyone, while others were shocked by the thought of sharing it mouth-to-mouth (hygiene, darling!). The general consensus, however, is that it's a pretty fun ad with welcome LGBTQ (or at least 'G') representation. 

The few "I'm not homophobic but..." type comments seemed to be in a small minority, and were limited to social media. The mainstream press has been very supportive.

The couple gave an interesting interview to ATTITUDE magazine. One quote which struck me was by Callum, who explains that LGBTQ people represented in these everyday situations would have been invaluable to him as a child coming to terms with his own sexuality in the 90s.

“It would have been a very small bit of hope in a sea of confusion”, he says. “You can’t just say this one advert is going to change someone’s life when the world still feels so heterosexual and white, but I think it would have been a little bit of hope, and normalised it slightly for someone who might feel they’re wrong for finding someone of the same sex attractive.  Seeing this would have made the confusion I went through a lot easier at the time.”

Hear, hear.

The article in ATTITUDE can be found here. The ad itself is widely available online (including in the Independent article quoted below).