Taiwan: New McCafé ad spurs boycott

A new advertisement by McCafé featuring a heartwarming coming-out scene has created something of a firestorm in a coffee cup in Taiwan, with religious fundamentalists up in arms, calling for a boycott against the chain.

In the 90-second video, titled Acceptance, the third and latest video in the More Warmth in Conversations campaign by McCafé which started in January, a father and son are seen sitting at a table in a McCafé. The son hands his father a coffee cup with a note which reads "I like boys." The father then gets up, visibly upset, and appears to storm away from the table. As the son sits at the table in despair, his father later returns and writes three characters on the coffee cup which make the sentence read "I accept that you like boys." The pair then exchange smiles before the tagline "Let there be more warmth in conversations" appears on screen.

While the ad received mostly positive comments on social media, its message of acceptance didn't go down too well with some of the island's religious fundamentalists. Chang Shou-yi, secretary general of the Alliance of Taiwan Religious Groups for the Protection of Family, has urged parents and consumers to boycott McDonald's. "Now, even if you want to just take a leak at a McDonald's bathroom, you can't help but feel polluted," he was quoted in local media reports as saying. Read more via Shanghaiist