Apple edits same-sex parents from Mother's Day ads in France, Germany and other countries

The Mexican, Australian and Canadian versions each featured Melanie and Vanessa Roy, and their children – but their family was removed for some international versions of the ad

Apple retail employee Minh Phan marches in the San Francisco Gay Pride Festival in California June 29, 2014 (REUTERS/Noah Berger)

Apple has cut a same-sex couple and their two children from a Mother’s Day advert.

The short video initially included Melanie and Vanessa Roy and their two babies, Jax Izzo and Ero Kix. But they were removed from some international versions of the ad.

Apple’s ad included a range of pictures and videos of people with their mothers. It concluded with a short messaging reading “Moms” and then “Shot on iPhone”, and was shown ahead of Mothers’ Day in various countries.

The US, Mexican, Australian and Canadian versions of the video included the family together.

But in versions shown in France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Turkey and Japan, they had been cut out.

In the countries where the couple was removed, they were replaced with a picture of just one of them and a child. That received the same credit – “Vanessa R” – but was a different photo.

The two videos were each posted to Apple’s relevant YouTube accounts. While the company posted the American version – featuring the couple – to its main one, the edited version can be seen on all of the local accounts.

The two people shown are a real couple, Melanie and Vanessa Roy, who are popular on Instagram and share pictures of themselves and their family.

It isn’t clear why they have been removed. While the edited ad was shown in some countries with relatively , others like France made same-sex marriage legal long ago.

Apple has always lent its public support to LGBT causes, publicly supporting events like San Francisco’s Pride parade and giving its backing to issues like same-sex marriage.

And CEO Tim Cook, who is gay, has given strong support to LGBT people across the world in personal statements.

The company hasn’t publicly commented on the editing and didn’t initially return a request for comment.

Apple has altered its adverts before. In one of its Apple Watch spots, for instance, it removed tattoos on a man’s arms for the Japanese version.

And other companies like Toyota and Coca-Cola have made changes to ads to remove same-sex couples in certain countries.