Pasta Company President's Comment on Gays Prompts Boycott Call

Said he'd never run an ad including a gay family

The president of Italy-based Barilla, the world's largest pasta producer, sparked a boycott of his famed firm Thursday after saying he would not show gay families in the firm's ads.

"I would never make a spot with a homosexual family," Guido Barilla said on the Italy radio program La Zanzara (The Mosquito), according to Italian news agency ANSA. "Not out of a lack of respect but because I do not see it like they do. (My idea of) family is a classic family where the woman has a fundamental role."

ANSA reported that when the show's hosts noted that gays and lesbians eat pasta, Barilla responded, "That's fine if they like our pasta and our communication, they can eat them. Otherwise, they can eat another pasta."