George Takei, Ted Allen and Sally Jessy Raphael are among those
knocking Barilla over anti-gay remarks made by its president Guido
Barilla.
Last week, Barilla told an Italian radio host that gays will never
appear in Barilla ads and if they didn't like the company's
advertising they were free to eat another brand of pasta.
Barilla apologized for his remarks in a statement and in a video
posted online. He's also promised to meet with LGBT rights
advocates.
(Related: Guido
Barilla apologizes on video; says he'll meet with gay rights groups.)
But that apology failed to dampen the maelstrom as a “bigotoni”
meme – complete with a mock bigotoni Barilla box – began making
the rounds on the Internet.
“I hear Barilla pasta is making a new product – bigotoni,”
actor George Takei tweeted.
“Challenge to the Internet: make 'bigotoni' stickers that look
like the Barilla logo, sticker bomb grocery stores world wide,”
messaged Greg Dwar (@njudah).
“Funny/weird, considering Barilla once hired me for a national PR
gig – while Queer Eye was on the air …,” food
personality and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy alum Ted Allen
messaged.
Talk show host Sally Jessy Raphael bluntly tweeted: “No more
Barilla pasta for me! Go sell it to Putin you bunch of jerks.”
(Related: New
Jersey chef Joe Leone dumps Barilla over exec's anti-gay comments.)