A French branch of Subway has been forced to shut after it advertised a Valentine’s Day deal that did not include gay couples.
The store, which offered a discounted meal for male/female couples, said it was exercising “freedom of expression”.
Same-sex marriage was approved by the National Assembly in France last week, but still needs to go to the upper house of French Parliament to be ratified.
Freedom
Small print at the bottom of the store’s advert said: “Discrimination (?) No, the marriage for all law has advanced, but has yet to be ratified by the Senate. Until then, I’ll use my freedom of expression.”
However, following a backlash on Twitter and Facebook after a picture of the poster was published online, the franchise was forced to close by national management the next day.
The poster advertised a meal deal which included a footlong Subway sandwich, a drink and a dessert each for 14 Euros for couples on Valentine’s Day.
Couples
In brackets next to the word ‘couples’ were the letters ‘H/F’ to indicate that this was defined as a man and a woman.
According to French media reports, another Subway in the area was forced to close its Facebook page because of ‘abusive comments’ despite having nothing to do with the offer.
Subway France responded to the Twitter storm about the poster, saying they are “committed to diversity/integration, we are working with the owner of the restaurant to reinforce our values/policy”.