AIBU to find HelloFresh's Pride post grim?

[OrientalBay]

Really Hello Fresh? Jumping on the Pride bandwagon and promoting your high fibre offering to gay men? Utterly grim.

But Pride has become a focus on what gay men do during sex.

It isn't homophobic to differentiate between a political campaign for equality and acceptance and a festival which now seems obsessed with putting as many sexual practices and fetishes into the public eye.

A long procession of men demonstrating BDSM, Furries, leather and rubber fetishes, dogs on leads cos play, brandishing dildos etc. Creating a bandwagon for companies to create adverts specifically focusing on intimate details of sex.

This is hardly heterosexuals 'obsessing' about what gay people do amongst consenting adults in their own homes, if straight people want to support Pride it's bloody hard to avoid the nuts and bolts of a variety of sexual practice.

I care about equal rights, I campaigned (over my long life) for an equal age of consent, equal marriage , against Section 28 etc etc. The point is that these rights should exist entirely beside any question or detail of what gay men choose to do between themselves. So we don't need details of shit up arses to be political allies.

I remember 'jokes' about empyting the back passage before the weekend, yes. I worked on building sites where this sort of banter was commonplace among the men.

Not sure why you think this is anything other than pure homophobia. Maybe explain?

If the RHS started banging on about 'enjoying the uphill gardening this month' would that be totally fine? I thought we were past all this when the advert for 'Nutty Yorkie Bars Not for Girls' was finally dropped. Maybe Walls need to bring in some Nutty Chocolate Starfish ice creams?

It makes me really sad for the lovely gay men (and women - who exist by the way) I know. This kind of 'pride' doesn't represent them. They want to be respected and free to love the people they love. They don't want brands trying to sell more shit recipe boxes by basically saying 'Haha you take it up the arse'.

And as a side note this thread has taught me about recipe box meat being religiously slaughtered so I'll avoid them in future for that reason too.

The makers of sugar-free gummy bears really have been missing a huge trick, haven't they?

All that careful promoting of snacks that won't damage your teeth, upset your blood glucose or represent a whole load of unwanted extra calories for those trying to watch their weight... maybe they should have just 'owned' their product and focused on its primary effect, with particular attention paid to how the gay male community may appreciate the benefits of a really good clear-out to scour your rectum sparkly clean (but maybe don't mention the stomach pains, though).

ummm, because it’s actually common practice to do that before anal, for both women and men.

that’s why I’m not seeing it as homophobic.

If they wanted to associate their company with shit they should have just invited people to try contacting their customer service.

The old fibre myth being rolled out again.

Fibre is absolutely not essential to having good regular BMs.

But even if it was, it’s pretty low to associate a food box that is crap with the end product that is even more crap.

They're were enough men like him to cause a sales collapse and 500 million dollar write down of the brand.

Moral, don't lecture your core customer base.

Yes that's what I meant, in reference to the poster saying they'd achieved their objective by getting us to give them so much headspace. Headspace does not equal good marketing - we might all be thinking and talking about Hello fresh, but that's not going to translate into sales if we're actually all going "Ewww, never not going to associate their food with shit now"!

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

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?

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.

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.

Why would your children be looking at instagram?

Summed it up perfectly. Love the directness

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

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

<<<<<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?

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?

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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