Department store criticised for using heterosexual rabbit family in Easter ads
A DEPARTMENT store's Easter advertising campaign has come under fire for using a heterosexual family of Easter Bunnies instead of homosexuals or transgenders.
The ad shows a celebrity rabbit family with a dad, mum, son and daughter
The campaign - for retail giants Hema - shows a celebrity rabbit family with a dad, a glamorous mum, a son and a daughter.
In the ads, they are helping the store hide and find eggs in their shops all over Holland.
During a fake behind-the-scenes video, the family - played by actors - pose for snaps in a studio with the daddy rabbit Charles sitting in an armchair.
Who says that the Easter Bunny is heterosexual?
He is flanked by his adoring wife Juliette and their children Richard and Innez.
The ad goes on to show the mummy rabbit pulling model poses for the cameras.
But the charming family oriented ad for the Easter break has come under attack from critics who say it is sexist and too heterosexual.
In the ads they are helping the store hide and find eggs in their shops
Green party politician Mirjam de Rijk was furious at the ad's description of the mummy rabbit as "the bunny all men love".
She branded the ad thoroughly sexist and said Hema "should be ashamed".
One commentator, who says she is homosexual and who was named as Chantal Coolsma, added: "Who says that the Easter Bunny is heterosexual?"
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She added: "As a child I grew up with the image of a single Easter Bunny who hid Easter eggs. Why must there suddenly now be a family involved?
"I think retail has gone too far with the Easter experience. Easter is more and more shown as the celebration where you need to dine with your entire family, just like Christmas."
But Hema - which has seven shops in the UK - says it is baffled by the criticism.
Hema is baffled by the criticism
Spokesman Arnold Drijver said: "Hema is happy that the Easter Bunny family wanted to cooperate with the Easter campaign."
He added: "Besides that, the Easter Bunny family and Hema especially want to make it a happy Easter celebration for children."
The mummy rabbit poses as a model for the cameras
It is not the first time Hema's Easter campaign has come under massive fire.
Last year, the retailer was accused of appeasing Islamic radicals by using the slogan "Happy Spring" instead of "Happy Easter" and rebranding Easter eggs as "hiding eggs".