A commercial for Cheerios came out a few months ago that really stirred up some controversy. In it, a child asks her mother about Cheerios.
“Dad told me that Cheerios is good for your heart. Is that true?”
Her mother replies in the affirmative and the girl smiles and runs into the next room. In the next scene we see the father waking up from a nap and he is covered in Cheerios, most of them on top of where his heart is. It’s a cute, simple commercial, right? What’s the problem?
The apparent controversy is about the fact that the parents are a biracial couple. The mother is white while the father is black.
The explosion of negative feedback and hate the commercial received led to General Mills disabling the YouTube comments on the video. The negativity was created by what Sajeev Varki, an associate professor of marketing at USF called a “small sliver” of society. In 2013, “a time when interracial marriage has been legal now for decades, Varki points out that this ad is reality. He hopes other companies don’t shy away from it” (ABC Action News).
This whole issue reminds me a little bit of Richard Wright’s “The Ethics of Jim Crow.” I hate to be cynical but this makes our society seem like it’s impossible to escape racism. People find it even in commercials for delicious cereal.
The links for the commercial and a news source are below. I’ve also included a link to a video where kids react to the commercial. It’s pretty endearing and maybe will restore your faith in humanity just a little bit.
The commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYofm5d5Xdw
Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_hillsborough/cheerios-commercial-featuring-interracial-family-draws-harsh-comments#ixzz2l2CgwYyT
TheFineBro’s Kids React to Controversial Cheerios Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VifdBFp5pnw#t=210
There should have been no controversy over that video. It was just a cheerios commercial, featuring a family and a cute spin on heart healthy. Based on the video you posted, it is clearly an idea left over from the past (prevalent in older people) which has not reached the young kids in the video, which is reassuring.
As much as we like to say that we are living in a post-racial society, race continues to affect much of life today. This Cheerios commercial is a perfect example of how race continues to be seen as a problem. We do have an African American president, which shows that Americans have become more accepting of racial minorities; however, race remains problematic. It is completely ridiculous that people find such fault with interracial couples. The family portrayed in the commercial seems to be very loving. It is unfortunate that people are commenting on the race of the family members, instead of the love that appears to be shared between them.
There absolutely should be no controversy over a simple commercial for a CERAL, but that is the sad truth of the world we live in today. The internet has become a place for hateful people to hide behind the anonymity of their computers and say terrible, terrible things. From biracial couples to gay couples to celebrities to even children, internet “trolls” will bully anyone online. Because these ignorant people are bored with their lives, they enjoy the rare attention they receive from posting brutally mean and hurtful things via cyberspace. In some cases, it is the the only social interaction they will receive all day. These people are from an older, less accepting generation and they can’t fight against what’s right forever.
After my super angry rant about internet “trollers,” I would like to say that I absolutely LOVE the video of the children responding to the commercial. That was a really great thing to add to your post! It really makes you realize how absolutely ridiculous anyone who criticizes this commercial actually is. These children give me hope for the future because they were completely oblivious to the fact that the parents were different races. Racism is slowly being weeded out of society one generation at a time. I think that the parents of those children are doing it absolutely right. As one of the little girls said, “It doesn’t matter what the color of (a person’s) skin is, it just matters if they’re nice or mean.”
On a side note, as I was flying home from break yesterday there was a biracial couple saying goodbye to their daughter at the airport. The only reason I even noticed that they were biracial was because I had read this post an hour earlier. Love is love, everyone’s a person and therefore equal, people need to get over it.
I actually love commercials that address these issues, because it IS still an issue in America. The kid’s reactions just goes to show that racism is learned, not inherent in our society. Our society could learn a thing or two from children about how disgusting some of our society is when it comes to the color of people’s skin.