"Doritos Israel published a new ad over the past weekend, released ahead of Family Day, which will be observed in Israel this coming Tuesday. In the 60-second video, different kinds of families appear, including LGBTQ families.

"There are families that actually do choose to be families," says the narrator in the ad while on screen there are two women with a girl and two babies. After that, two men with a baby appear on screen, and the narrator continues: "There are families that travel to the other side of the world on the way to becoming a family."

These are of course not the only families shown in the ad, which gives a platform to a wide range of families, including a bereaved family, a single-parent family, and a mixed religious-secular family. "There are lots of families, and all of them are special," says the narrator near the end of the video. "And even if it takes courage to dare in your choices, all families deserve to be families."

Despite the moving message, the LGBTQ presence in the ad stirred anger in the religious sector, and last night (Saturday night) calls for a consumer boycott began circulating on social media. Among those calling for a boycott was Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King, who tweeted: "For the sake of the mental and spiritual health of future generations, we must boycott 'Doritos,' who are trying to influence the natural family unit through advertising their products."

Rabbi Baruch Efrati, rabbi of the community of the town of Efrat, also called not to buy the product. "It is forbidden to recognize those who live this way as a family and make a public display of it, against modesty and humility and the Jewish family as guided by the holy Torah. Therefore, one should not purchase this product; do not join hands with the wicked."

Voices calling to boycott "Doritos" also arose in the religious media. "I’m not buying Doritos, and not just because of health," tweeted Emmanuel Shilo, editor of the newspaper B'Sheva. "A company that sells snacks shouldn’t take sides on disputed value-laden issues. I won’t interfere in the life of someone who chooses to live differently, but I won’t give my money to a company that uses it to harm my values — the values of the Jewish family."

From Mako

What’s the question? I wouldn’t boycott them, and I have no problem with what they did. Whoever does have a problem can boycott them. Fine by me.

As I wrote, if every sector boycotts whatever doesn’t fit its beliefs (not as individuals, but as a sector), our society will fall apart very quickly. In your opinion, is that a real concern?

I assume not. The economy is stronger than all of us. It’s like saying that if everyone refuses orders, the army will fall apart. It won’t. People refuse only when it matters to them a lot, and even then it’s a very small minority.

And here’s what I heard about today: Rabbi Aviner and other rabbis instructed their followers not to donate blood to Magen David Adom because of a change in their forms from "father and mother" to "parent 1, parent 2." Magen David Adom, in order to calm things down, decided to remove the parents’ details from the form altogether, so there’s no need to write who your father and mother are. But for the rabbis that isn’t enough; they want "father and mother" restored so that heaven forbid there should be even a little progressivism, and in the meantime they are boycotting blood donation to Magen David Adom.

As I understand it, this is: a. not something on the margins, b. not something very, very important. Right?
Am I still allowed to stay calm?
Thanks

You can stay calm. Nothing here is going to fall apart. The two and a half people who obey that stupid instruction won’t change anything. That’s about the same number of people who will boycott Rabbi Melamed in light of the letters that were published against him.