McCain advert
Lee and Mat Samuels-Camozzi, from Cheshire were subjected to abuse after appearing in the 60 second commercial for the We Are Family campaign McCain

A gay couple will no longer feature in a TV advert for McCain's after suffering homophobic abuse.

Lee and Mat Samuels-Camozzi, from Cheshire, appeared in the 60 second commercial for the "We Are Family" campaign, which celebrates the myriad forms of the modern family.

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Portraying everyday images of family life the advert asks: "When it comes to family, what's normal? Normal isn't normal.

"Grans who put you to bed and tell you not to believe in ghosts. Or maybe it's dad who tucks you up. Dad. Daddy. Two daddies. Long-distance daddies."

Lee and Mat are seen lovingly feeding and cradling their baby in the TV commercial, however the couple revealed they have been subjected to abusive comments on social media since the ad aired.

They said the abuse had left them disheartened, but that "for all the negativity we had lots of hugely supportive comments".

A spokesman for McCain's confirmed on Friday (29 September) that the pair would no longer feature in the campaign after the 60-second advert's run came to an end. A new 30-second version of the advert, which doesn't feature the couple, will be aired in it's place.

Expressing disappointment at the negative public reaction, a spokesman for McCain told The Guardian the decision to not include them in the shorter version was "absolutely not" connected to the social media backlash.

"Our campaign is all about celebrating the diversity of family life and not everybody's a normal family. There's only so much you can say in 30 seconds. We're still promoting them, they're in the posters and we've got them on social media."

The company said that despite the backlash from some quarters, the campaign has also received overwhelming support.