An adorable, innocuous Cheerios ad depicting a mixed-race family sparked a racist hate-storm online, forcing General Mills to disable YouTube comments.
Commenters (with predictably horrible grammar) called the commercial’s white mom-black dad coupling disgusting and disgraceful.
Banned from YouTube, one segregationist on Reddit decried General Mills for “shoving multiculturalism down our throats when we know it fails.”
It’s 2013, haters, and (thankfully), more than ever, mixed families are the new normal. How about you pop a chill pill and stop embarrassing yourselves by coming out on a public forum as blubbering bigots.
You know what, you guys? Racism can’t be heart healthy.
Meanwhile, multiracial families rejoiced at seeing a nice depiction of themselves in the media, in a commercial where race was a non-issue, no less.
“This commercial is a huge step for interracial families like mine who want to be seen in public together and maybe eat some heart-healthy snacks,” law student and daughter to bi-racial parents Meagan Hatcher-Mays wrote for Jezebel days after the ad debuted last week (strong language alert). “But it also validates the existence of biracial and multiracial people.”
Despite the hate simmering in those since-deleted YouTube comments, there’s been a huge positive response from multicultural America (which is most of it). So why aren’t ads like this already normal by now?
Good question. Turns out, it’s probably a money thing.
Advertising tends to lag behind the rest of society when it comes to issues like race, AdWeek answers. Brands don’t want to come off as too edgy, too political and scare off customers. That’s why spots like the Cheerios commercial stick out, even though it’s representative of more than 5.4 million couples in the U.S. (a 28 percent increase from 2000), per the latest U.S. Census Bureau count.
TV shows, on the other hand, tend to keep better pace with cultural trends. Think Crosby and Jasmine on NBC’s “Parenthood,” the historic “Star Trek” kiss, or even, way back when, Lucy and Desi on “I love Lucy.”
Though depictions of diversity in advertising are becoming more common, it’s about time to make them the new norm instead of the anomaly. Think about what a pleasant surprise it was to see a gay couple featured in that Kindle commercial – memorable, unforced, entertaining and a positive reinforcement for so many customers.
Maybe Fruit Loops can take a page from Kindle.
How can you hate on something so cute? (Screen grab via Cheerios)
Find Jennifer Wadsworth on Twitter at @jennwadsworth.
