The World According to Eram

Eram, a French shoe manufacturer, has launched a highly provocative and altogether ludicrous campaign promoting the joys of the "modern" family. This means homosexual marriage and adoption, changing partners, mixed races, undetermined genders, etc… The whole panoply of destructive behaviors vaunted by the Left and its "progressive" allies. At first I thought Eram was parodying this type of behavior, but no, apparently it's not a parody, it's for real. And the goal is to make money. Let's hope they go broke.

In nº 141 of his weekly newsletter (available through subscription), Yves Daoudal denounces the campaign, its intentions and its potential consequences. However, he does point out that there was an uproar and Eram had to explain itself.

He begins his article with a detailed description of the ads. The one above reads:

"As my two mommies say, the family is sacred."

Besides promoting homosexuality, there is "diversity" and "gender" ideology, "reproduction" without procreation. We don't know if this child will be a man or a woman or what kind of family it will form with someone of the opposite sex or the same sex, depending on what they choose to become, but they will have, we don't know how, children, because "the family is sacred."

The poster on the right below reads:

"As my mommy and her boyfriend who could be my older brother say, the family is sacred"

And the one on the left:

"As my dad, my mom, and my dad's third wife say, the family is sacred."


Note: As I indicated above, I thought these were jokes. SNL could not have done better.

Yves Daoudal goes on:

The good news is that these ads triggered an uproar. At least many people protested. Enough for the company to feel obliged to react, by creating a Facebook page where everyone can speak freely, and through the following communiqué explaining its decision:

"At a time when there are more and more divorces in France, when homosexual marriage has just been legalized in New York, Eram is getting into the act and showing, both in billboards and in magazines, family portraits of a type never shown in the advertising world: unstructured, recomposed, shattered, deconstructed. Children who have two moms, others with one father, one mother, and three step mothers, still others where the step father has the same age as the older brother. Hey, this is "real" life. But if families explode, the spirit of the family remains. For, no matter what, the family is sacred."

You will note that for Eram, that is "real" life. Exploded families. Families with several fathers, several mothers, children who have two mothers and no father, etc… If there are still any families composed of a man and a woman, married for life, who have children, they should be informed that they are not leading a real life: they are leading a false life, an illusory life…

That is what the Facebook messages stress. For there is no dialogue. The few who dared to maintain that a family is a man, a woman and their children, were submerged by the horde who emphasized the accuracy, truth and excellence of Eram's ads, treating the opponents as medieval or prehistoric, or simply denying that there can exist such a definition of the family. These remarks fall between two disgusting attacks against the Church for having imposed such an absurd model for such a long time.

What was most often repeated was the affirmation that what counts is love, and that each one lives his love as he likes with whom he likes, etc… The family is "just a cocoon of profound love among the persons who are part of it, be they homos, bi-sexuals, heteros, mixed, alone with children, or a couple…"

One of the dissenters at the Facebook site was René Poujol, a professor from the Law School of Toulouse who wrote:

"I have just spent a lot of time - much too much - at these pages. An interesting example of an impossible dialogue. Eram checks out the current trends in order to make money. They are not the first, nor will they be the last. But I see how difficult it is to put rationality into debates where the only criterion is emotional and where the so-called "rights" of an adult lead to the abuse of the rights of the child."

Another dissenter was a priest, Father Louis de Villoutreys:

"Besides the desire to sell shoes, what you are promoting here is not the family, but a weakening and a decomposition of the family. Homosexual parenting is a violence done to the child because it is a lie about his identity! Every human being is born from a man and a woman. The sexual difference is not a fantasy, but the very essence of our humanity!"

Yves Daoudal concludes:

I did not read all of it, but I did not notice anyone denouncing this egoism that has become a kind of insanity, where the only thing that counts is a so-called "love" among adults, that is in no way concerned about children. Yet Eram's campaign stresses the child, since he is at the center of it, he is the one who speaks. This child has every chance of being miserable, even traumatized. Adults say that "the family is sacred," but they change partners like they change shirts and the child is tossed about, and pays the cost of their inevitable quarrels, hatreds and jealousies. Eventually, he no longer knows who he is. Many of those people are child torturers and don't know it. They don't want to know, because what counts is their individualistic, egoistic and petty sentimental and sexual life, where they take refuge like an oyster in its shell.

Remember what Eram said: real life means unstructured, recomposed, burst apart, deconstructed families. In truth it is the children who are unstructured, recomposed, shattered, deconstructed. Atomized.

No. That is not love.

In the comment section of one of several posts on this topic, Le Salon Beige published this response from Eram to criticism from a priest, abbé Grosjean, that confirms to some extent the feeling I had that it was a joke:

"We received your message dated 09/28/2011, in which you expressed your displeasure with our new publicity campaign.

Your remarks are very important to us.

As you know, Eran has a long tradition of humor and impertinence in its ads. Sometimes it happens that this humor shocks some people. This is completely unintentional.

In truth, Eram is a popular brand that reaches out to everyone and has no desire, no cause, to upset any of our consumers.

The new publicity campaign shows that despite the undeniable changes taking place in society, one value remains unchanged: the spirit of the family.

By affirming that the family is sacred and having this idea expressed by children, Eram is not judging the evolutions of society, and even less do we encourage them. But we are deliberately placing ourselves on the side of all families such as they are today." (…)

I'm afraid that Eram's answer, as good as it is, is not good enough. Because they are a popular brand they should either abstain completely from any involvement in these issues, or their ads should show children in traditional families.

Update: October 15, 2011 - Lawrence Auster at VFR has linked to this article and adds a few comments of his own about a well-known "conservative" American journalist who feels it is an "abomination" to ban homosexual marriage.