Monday, December 09, 2013



Pasta company sparks outrage after tweeting an inappropriate advert on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor



SpaghettiOs made a faux pas on the 72nd anniversary of Japan's attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base when it decided to remember the event by tweeting a photo of it's grinning mascot with an American Flag.

'Take a moment to remember #Pearlharbor with us,' read the tweet last Friday night.

Pearl Harbor commemorates the death of 2,386 Americans and is a national tragedy.

This photo of a smiling pasta-O holding an American flag left many saying, 'oh no'

Once SpaghettiOs caught wind of the fact that they offended the blogosphere, they issued a formal apology on December 7.  They have since deleted their original posting.

SpaghettiOs which is an American brand under the umbrella company Campbell's Soup features circular pasta covered in a cheese and tomato sauce. It comes in a can and is marketed to parents as 'less messy' than regular pasta.

Source

A storm in a teacup

7 comments:

Luke Warm said...

Capitalism at its best.

Anonymous said...

Actually, it's nothing more than another example of insatiable corporate greed, this time disguised as "patriotism". And, as consumers, we are surrounded by it, non-stop. So much so, that we don't even notice any more.

We have become oblivious to the fact that the advertising industry has a (much) stronger hold on our lives, our privacy, and every bit of our most personal information, than the govt. has, or cares to have.

Anonymous said...

Co-abuse. It's like some play acting S&M, all this online culture war bullshit. Just shut up. Stop feeding the monster. Don't feed the troll of the MSM.

Anonymous said...

I don't see the offense. Is it that their mascot was so cartoonish, and therefore unsuitable to demonstrate patriotism? Does this make them racist?

Anonymous said...

Would they have been happier if the spaghetti-o had said 'don't take a minute to remember Pearl Harbor'?

Anonymous said...

I'm a service member and do not see anything offensive in this at all. It comes across as a little silly but they market a product to children so I would expect their adverts to be that way. But nothing in that picture to me is offensive. I think some people are just looking for any reason to get offended and cause a stir on the web.

Anonymous said...


I see nothing there to apologize for either. Remembering Pearl Harbor is a good thing, combining it into an advertisement is a normal marketing practice.

What I didn't see is who is the idiot raising the red flag and saying this shouldn't have been done. An investigations into that person's motives would be far more appropriate.