All posts in: Cheerios

31 May 2013

Cheerios Ad Receives Backlash For Featuring Interracial Family

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kYofm5d5Xdw]

Cheerios has always had a reputation for creating new advertisements that are warm and downright adorable. In their most recent ad entitled “Just Checking” the brand features an interracial family and apparently in this day and age – there are still some people that aren’t pleased. Disappointing, right? The backlash is completely unnecessary and most blogs standing behind the ad (like Yow Yow!) are confused as to why backlash is happening at all!

The video in question features an adorable child asking her white mother about Cheerios. After learning about the cereal’s cholesterol-removing benefits, she promptly douses what seems to be an entire box-full of Cheerios onto her black father’s shirt when he’s sleeping. It’s cute, adorable, and made us reach for the bright yellow box in our own pantry. Unfortunately, it has also attracted a slew of racist comments on YouTube,forcing Cheerios to disable the comments section.

The video, created by Saatchi & Saatchi NYC, has garnered over 267,000 views, 3,500 likes, and 630 dislikes on YouTube since it was uploaded on Tuesday. According to AdWeek, commenters made references to Nazis, troglodytes (a prehistoric group of people that lived in caves), and racial genocide. But not all were terrible and racist. Supporters have taken to Cheerios’ Facebook page to thank the company for producing an ad with a 21st century point of view. Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Cheerios, told Gawker: “Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad. At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all.”

Well – I think this ad is sweet. That’s all that needs to be said about that, really.

[Source]