May 31, 2015

Cheerios Commercial

While many viewers found a Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial couple and their daughter to be adorable, the video stirred national controversy when others made it the target of racist backlash. After 500 dislikes and endless comments filled with violent racial language on the YouTube video, General Mills had no choice but to disable comments and eventually, take down the video. How did Cheerios respond? They created a second ad which appeared as a Superbowl commercial; this time with the family expecting a second biracial child.

HOW DOES THIS CONNECT TO STRUCTURAL RACISM?:

While the majority of Americans claim to support interracial marriages, many mixed-race families continue to face disapproval and experience intolerance, which is a vestige of a racist past when interracial marriage was prohibited in the US.

For more on the controversy see, "Cheerios Commercial Gets Racist Backlash".