While interracial families have become more common in recent years, a seemingly innocent Cheerios commercial has done nothing but show how many on the Internet are still opposed to the idea.
On Tuesday, General Mills uploaded “Just Checking,” a commerical that shows a little girl asking her mother if she can treat her father to some Cheerios. The 30-second spot would have likely gone unnoticed, but the family is made up of a white mother and a black father and that quickly brought out people who are opposed to interracial families.
AdWeek reported that until a ReddIt user tried to congratulate Cheerios on showing an interracial family, the ad really did go unnoticed. On the site, the post gained over 1,000 comments, which soon overflowed to YouTube.
Many of the comments were negative, bringing up Nazis and “racial genocide” and continued until YouTube decided to close off the comments section all together. Time noted that negative comments have appeared on other Cheerios videos.
“Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad,” the company told The New York Daily News. “At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all.”
Thanks to the attention, the ad has now drawn over 270,000 views on YouTube, with 4,355 “up” votes.
image: YouTube
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