The Heinz Deli Mayo ad, aired only in the United Kingdom, depicts a two-parent family in which "Mum" is a "New York deli guy," accent and all, preparing sandwiches for a husband and kids. The spot includes a short kiss between the two men. It is the first one created by Heinz's new ad agency, AMV BBDO, who picked up the Heinz contract last year.

Due to the ad's contents, it carried an "ex-kids" restriction, The Guardian reported, meaning that it is forbidden from being shown on or around children's programming.

The commercial has sparked criticism from media figures such as Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, and outrage from organizations such as the American Family Association, which called on its members to contact Heinz in protest. Disagreement abounds over how the makers of the ad intended to depict the characters: As a family whose kitchen was transformed into a deli by a jar of style mayonnaise, as the ad agency said, or as an otherwise "traditional" household with two dads.

Heinz pulled the ad after 202 complaints to the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, but over 7,000 people, as of this writing, have signed an online petition to reinstate it.

"It is our policy to listen to consumers," said Nigel Dickie, director of corporate affairs for Heinz UK. "Heinz is a global company," he added, "and we respect all universal rights. The advertisement was intended to be humorous, not designed to cause offence to anyone. Clearly it failed in its intent to amuse and that is why we took the decision to withdraw it."

"First, I commend them for this terrific, funny ad," said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen, "but I'm really disappointed that they had this ill-conceived, knee-jerk reaction that pandered to prejudice."

"It doesn't make any sense to me," he went on. "200 people complained out of 60 million people in the United Kingdom. They knew this was going to happen, and it's just not credible for them to say that because of market research, they're pulling this. What they did was they got scared [because] some special interest, right-wing groups in the United States, namely the American Family Association, threatened them and told them to take this off the air.

"It sends a terrible message to gay teenagers, in particular, and those with gay parents."

Marketing analyst Dan Hill countered that Heinz was right to pull the ad, because it probably reflected the views of the ad agency more than Heinz, and more than the general public.

"In business, you can never afford to forget that the bottom line is that 'family values' means 'my family, not your family,'" he said, "and I think, in the UK, most households probably still have traditional family structures."

"Let's be honest, here," Besen countered. "This was a funny ad. I think everybody who has said [that] is behind the times."

"It's nothing controversial for most people," he continued. "I think what we're hearing are people who are behind the times, particularly in the United Kingdom, where you have same-sex marriage and gays serve openly in the military and it's been considered a big success.

"I think we need to get a reality check right here: There are gay people. We have always been around. We deserve, as anybody else, to have our lives shown accurately and responsibly."

The exchange can be viewed below, as aired on CNN Headline News on June 25, 2008.