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| Cheerios starts a firestorm of controversy by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 06/03/2013, 6:12am PDT | ||||
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| There is a new 30-second commercial for Cheerios that is causing so much negative and nasty commentary that General Mills had to disable comments for it on YouTube. The video is titled "Just Checking" And I'll inline it below. Let me give you the transcript so you can read it first, then you can watch the video and see why what would appear to be an innocuous commercial triggered so nasty nasty comments.
Little Girl: [places box of Cheerios on table] Mom? Mother: Yes, Honey? Little Girl: Dad told me that Cheerios is good for your heart. Is that true? Mother: [Reads box] Says here that Cheerios has whole-grain oats that can help remove some cholesterol, that's heart healthy. Little Girl: [No dialog, smiles, takes box with her, runs off] Dad: [Wakes up on couch, where filled-in heart shape has been made over his heart with a lot of Cheerios, sits up and spills them. Cut to title card, "Love" in black on yellow similar to Cheerios box, as tune is played in background] Jen! And now you know why, the little girl is black, or more properly, mixed race, her mother is white, and her dad is black. This was so significant that the Today show had to cover it, because, as I noted above, the video got so many racially-motivated negative comments that General Mills - who has announced they have no intention of pulling this commercial - had to disable comments for the video. Today had Star Jones, who said that "Social Media is the new KKK." Apparently because of the anonymity of the Internet, people feel they can get away with nasty and brutish comments they probably wouldn't make in person. It was also noted that we don't see many interracial couples on television and especially not in commercials. (Interracial couples are only about 1% of the population.) I thought this cute commercial, which wouldn't have gotten a peep if it either was a black couple with a black child, or a white couple with a white one, just brought out the nasty in some people. Probably more so, because it raises the nastier stereotype which was played for comedy in Blazing Saddles when Clevon Little, who was posing as a Klan member under a sheet is exposed as actually black, enraged the vicious thugs that Hedley Lamarr is recruiting to attack the Town of Rock Ridge, by saying, "Where da white women at?" Because this commercial showed a black man with a white woman (actually, in the commercial the two are never on screen together), it exposes more of those nasty fears that black men are stealing - or more accurately, raping - white women. As I stated, I thought it was a cute commercial, and I'm just saddened by this kind of nastiness over something that if it wasn't for a completely irrelevant issue nobody would have cared. Maybe you disagree with me, or maybe you agree with me, let's hear your take. (If nothing else, it does get General Mills a lot of free airings of their commercial, which is the whole point of running ads. I, for one, would never have seen the commercial if not for the Today show publicizing it.) |
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Cheerios starts a firestorm of controversy by 06/03/2013, 6:12am PDT  Re: Cheerios starts a firestorm of controversy by 06/03/2013, 6:59am PDT If General Mills cared they'd make every box full of minority colored cheerios. by 06/03/2013, 9:33am PDT *bet; also on MSNBC they were calling the people mad about the ad "haters" by 06/03/2013, 9:41am PDT "Hater" is just the real life term for "Troll" NT by 06/03/2013, 9:57am PDT Hey there, five months ago by 06/03/2013, 1:17pm PDT ha ha, 17 months! NT by 06/03/2013, 1:18pm PDT The Haters are trying to get into the church! NT by 06/03/2013, 4:29pm PDT No, actually I've since seen the ad broadcast NT by 06/03/2013, 3:32pm PDT Re: Cheerios starts a firestorm of controversy by 06/03/2013, 9:26am PDT |
