Heinz has just pulled an ad featuring a kiss between two men, says Atticus. In the ad, two children and their father are leaving for school and work, whilst the "mum" character in the kitchen preparing their food is actually a New York man in a deli outfit. As the father goes to leave he calls "See you tonight love" and "mum" calls him back with "Hey, ain't you forgetting something?" and they kiss.

The idea behind the advert is that the mayo being advertised is so good it's like having your very own New York deli man making it in your kitchen.

The advert received 200 complaints about the kiss and Heinz decided to pull it, saying, "It is our policy to listen to consumers. We recognise that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it."

Unfortunately for them, it seems a sizably larger number of their consumers are disappointed with their actions – many accusing them of pandering to homophobia – if a number of online petitions are anything to go by.

However commendable it may be to create an ad showing two men kissing, what we shouldn't forget is that the joke also rests on the fact of stereotype of the homemaking mother, preparing everyone's food before the dad heads off to work.

This has of course been completely lost in the furore surrounding the kiss, but is an unfortunate feature of much advertising these days – KFC "Mum's night off" bucket of chicken, for example. Yes, the Heinz advert features a male kiss (+1 point), but it also reinforces limiting ideas of womenhood (-1 point). And with the decision to pull the ad (-10 points) Heinz's stock is very low in the progressive stakes (total = -10points).

See the ad here