Today Show: Controversial Cheerios Commercial
A mixed-race Cheerios commercial that aired recently has received a lot of negative comments across the internet. Cheerios manufacturer General Mills found some of the comments so offensive that they have disabled comments for the commercial on their YouTube channel. Camille Gibson, Vice President of General Mills, said that some of the comments made on the video were, in their view, were not “family friendly.”
A mixed-race Cheerios commercial got some hateful comments over the internet.
Camille Gibson said that they were only trying to portray an American family, and that there are all different kinds of families out there today of all races. General Mills said that they will not be pulling the commercial in the wake of the controversy. Some have even voiced their approval of the commercial, saying that they are happy that the commercial shows that, indeed, mixed-race families do exist.
Today Show: Star Jones And Donny Deutsch Weigh In On Commercial
Star Jones, an attorney and former prosecutor, and Donny Deutsch, chairman of Deutsch Inc. came in to comment on the reactions. They were asked if either were surprised by the hate-filled comments made about the commercial, and Star Jones said that she is not surprised at all.
Social media is akin to the white hood of the Ku Klux Klan, she said, adding that the Internet offers anonymity for people to say awful things they wouldn’t normally say to a person’s face. She also said it was generational, that her generation is still giving the side eye to mixed-race couples.
Donny Deutsch thought it was unfortunate that many companies would stay away from a topic like mixed-race couples, and that many advertisers are late to the game and need to start catching up. Donny’s company did a mixed-race ad 20 years ago.
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