A few months ago, I prepped the above graphic because I wanted to write a little piece here about a product I like — Barilla's microwave quickie pasta meals. They have several varieties, each of which yields a plate of hot pasta in sauce that heats in one minute. You peel open a corner of the film and pop the whole container in the microwave for 60 seconds. Then — very carefully because it's hot — you peel the entire film off. What you find inside is hot pasta and a little dish of sauce. You empty the sauce over the pasta, mix a bit with your fork, then use that fork to eat the pasta.
This does not yield an Italian feast comparable to what you'd get in a fine restaurant but it compares favorably to anything else you can whip up that quickly on sudden notice. I buy their plain Marinara version in bulk and always have a bunch at the ready in my pantry.
That's all I was going to write when I made up the illo…but since then, the head of the Barilla company has come under fire for some anti-gay remarks and calls have arised to boycott his firm's products. He quickly issued several apologies including this one…
Even giving the gent the benefit of the doubt, since English is not apparently his native tongue, he doesn't sound all that candid to me. It sounds like the kind of committee-drafted statement anyone would make if they feared a massive drop in sales. Then again, maybe that's just faulting the guy for a bad performance in front of a video camera. There are more skilled actors who could have sounded convincing with precisely the same sentiment in their hearts. There are also folks who were honestly repentant who could well come across as that insincere, especially as they swear to an overnight conversion. No one sees the light of day that fast. I think I'd have been more impressed if he'd said something like this…
People with whom my company does business urged me to quickly issue a statement saying I'd misspoken or been misunderstood and that I actually meant no disrespect to anyone in the gay community. It would be easy to say that but it would be a lie. The truth is that when I said it, I did mean it. I am not sure I still do. Many from whom I have heard have said and written things that cause me to reconsider, and not just because my remarks might lower my firm's profits. I have much to learn and while I do, I retract and apologize for my remarks. If you feel uncomfortable purchasing Barilla products, I understand.
If he'd said something like that, I might not have the dilemma of what I'm going to do when my current supply of his instant pasta meals runs out. Will I buy more? I dunno. I just dunno.