Interracial Family in Cheerios Ad Gets Hate Comments
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — A new Cheerios commercial that included an interracial family drew so many racially motivated hate comments on YouTube that the video-sharing website shut down the commercial’s comment section.
The ad, which debuted this week, shows a biracial child asking her white mother whether Cheerios are good for the heart, and then cuts to a shot of the child’s black father waking up from a nap with Cheerios spread all over his chest.
But the lighthearted spot touting Cheerios’ potential health benefits was eclipsed by thousands of comments left on its YouTube page this week.
The comments section has now been disabled, but AdWeek reported that some of the comments made reference to Nazis, “troglodytes” and “racial genocide.”
General Mills, the company that makes Cheerios, said the ad had been well-received, despite the YouTube comments.
“Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad. At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all,” Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Cheerios, said in a statement.
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