Remember the digital age activist who brilliantly trolled bigots freaking out about rainbow Doritos and Target's gender-neutral approach to signage? Well, he's back.
But for Mike Melgaard, engaging with homophobes is starting to take its toll.
When Campbell's soup released an ad featuring two gay fathers earlier this month, some anti-gay individuals predictably freaked out. But Melgaard saw the perfect opportunity to once again impersonate a customer service rep on Facebook and respond to those complaining about the ad on the Campbell's Facebook page.
However, after several rounds of this unique form of activist trolling, Melgaard says he is beginning to realize the full weight of the nature of homophobia and the way it plays out in the digital arena. Having used the same framework multiple times, he is starting to reflect on the larger implications of anti-gay outlooks. He told The Huffington Post,
I am really trying my hardest to be other people for an instant. That doesn't sound very difficult at all, but it is emotionally draining after doing it many times. The thing that always gets to me is what it must be like for the person on the receiving end of that hate. Like, what must be going through the minds of those dads (from the commercial) to be reading the comments? What will it be like for their little boy when he grows up and sees what some of these people have said about his parents?
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