AIBU to find HelloFresh's Pride post grim?

As I've pointed out already so many of Gillette's perfectly reasonable male customers objected to being lectured to by their shaving product suppliers that they switched to other brands resulting in P&G writing down the brand value on their balance sheet by half a billion and then selling the brand.

Is your husband a misogynist then?

As I remember it, the ad was about decent men calling out inappropriate/sexist/abusive behaviour of men towards women.

The fact that this alone brought the whole brand down is very telling in my opinion.

Well, that PP obviously has a problem with feminists, so them finding regressive stereotypes about gay men hilarious fits well with their unusual version of being"progressive".

It’s nothing to do with prudishness - I just don’t want to think about someone’s toilet habits or genitalia in the same context as food. Who that person is and who they have sex with is irrelevant.

I agree with this:

New Zealand political commentator Ani O’Brien criticised the campaign in a Facebook post.
“As a lesbian, I am so tired of this nonsense. I am tired of corporate Pride and activist Pride,” O’Brien said.
She said the same sex marriage movement was never about sex.
“It was about love, commitment, and the ability to build a life with the person you love. It was about family and equality before the law,” O’Brien said.
She said most gay people wanted to be accepted and left alone, rather than represented through crude corporate jokes.
“We don’t need multinational corporations making dirty jokes about us to feel ‘included’,” O’Brien said....
“How hard would it have been to make a genuinely wholesome Pride advertisement? Two mums cooking dinner with their kids or two husbands hosting friends,”
She said the campaign undermined years of work by gay people who wanted to be seen as neighbours, colleagues, parents and partners.
“It’s regressive and distasteful,” O’Brien said

https://www.chrislynchmedia.com/news-items/hellofresh-pride-campaign-criticised-as-regressive-and-distasteful/

Oh no, icon changed colours. Everybody panic

Ick.

Fucking gross.

Exactly

It's kinda gross.
And insulting to gay men.
And excludes others celebrating pride week.

Apparently so. And not just the act itself but clearing oneself out beforehand. I have now replaced their brand image in my head from lovely fresh healthy meals to, well, poo.
Seems an odd choice for a food company, they obviously don't want my money.

I feel like it’s just gross to use anal sex as a way to advertise a product like this. Nothing to do with pride or homophobia, it’s just really inappropriate and I’m a bit 😮 at the way this is a thing now in 2026 and that lots of people think it’s ok. I’m mean, we know sex sells but this is another level.

Of the gay men I know, some would think this was hilarious and pretty much sums up their lifestyle (or their lifestyle when they were a bit younger), some would definitely be pissed off at the stereotype that being gay is all about promiscuous sex, and some I wouldn't dare ask for fear of offending them.

I find all “pride” advertising grim, and I am furious that Waitrose have changed the app logo to pride colours. When I worked there a few years ago we were invited to wear pride armbands to show our support.

I couldn’t care less when anyone is other than traditionally heterosexual, but I find the cosying-up quite ridiculous.

There is nothing 'humorous' in a company using homophobic stereotypes of gay men and their sex life. Unless you're a homophobic bigot. Your support of HF's latent homophobic bigotry is noted. Read this thread. You will see how deeply offensive the add is to gay men.

I agree that the hatred of 'terfs' by misogynists on here is nuts, but there is nothing homophobic about this thread. On the contrary! It is pointing out the homophobia of HelloFresh, and their stereotyping of gays and gay sex. But I guess you're ok with HF's homophobic stereotyping of gay men?

<<<<<massively missing the point>>>>>>

I've got to page 4 and still cannot see if this is anatomically correct?

Does one need to take a poo before anal?

You sound to be the offended one to be honest. Chill.

Jeez that’s horrible. Do they really want people to associate their brand with anal sex ?

Summed it up perfectly. Love the directness

Why would your children be looking at instagram?

But Pride is about sex as well. It has been for years, like it or not, ever since people started wearing leather, bondage/fetish wear or even cosplay as part of the parades.

I agree that not every gay person might agree with that or feel like it represents them, but the same applies for the raunchy/wink-wink ads lots of companies share on valentines day - not everyone will be having sex then either, it's supposed to be celebrating love not shagging.

That's the issue/irony of pride - now that being gay is normalised as just one facet of someone's personality (good), it's equally true that there are as many ways of being gay as there are people - it's a joke that will land with some, others won't identify with it but also won't care, others might feel offended.

Exactly the same as ads aimed towards women - some I think are good, some are cheesy, some rely on stereotypes that I find offensive, some are not relevant to me now but perhaps were at a different time of my life...etc.

You know, someone above has just said that maybe it would have been better for a Valentine’s Day, rather than reducing Pride to be about having a shag, and I can absolutely see the point there.
the timing is off.
the message in general I don’t think is offensive though.
but maybe I’m wrong, it’s not my place to say as I don’t partake.

BECAUSE IT IS FOR PRIDE MONTH...

Fuck me, how did we get back to this so quickly and this is being hailed as 'Progressive'?

What did we all bother for? For this?

As a general campaign targeted at gay men I think it would’ve been a fine. But I have two issues -
Pride is about being proud of your sexuality, not necessarily having sex. Valentine’s Day would’ve make more sense?

And “prepping” makes me think of the HIV preventative PrEP. Not sure that was their aim.

I like that brands support Pride, I don’t really like when they create ad campaigns about it. But I don’t find the thought of gay men having sex or humans having bowel movements very offensive or gross