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SALT LAKE CITY — A new ad featuring a multiracial family is stirring up some buzz on the Internet — and not in a good way. The Cheerios commercial has sparked some very negative comments online, prompting the company to disable all comments about the video on its YouTube page.
The ad went live six days ago, and Cheerios took a calculated risk, according to advertisers. It was a risk aimed at an area of growth and a new audience.
The commercial features a multiracial girl talking with her caucasian mother at the breakfast table. When the girl asks her mother if the cereal is good for the heart, the mother tells her the cereal box says it contains "whole grain oats that can help remove some cholesterol, and that's heart healthy."
The next scene shows the girl's African-American father waking from a nap to find a pile of Cheerios on his chest — a humorous take on childlike innocence.
Almost immediately after the commercial's release, negative comments flooded the commercial's YouTube page. Cheerios eventually decided to disable the comments.
On Facebook, people have been calling the commercial "disgusting" and saying it "makes me want to vomit."
"I think it shows, unfortunately, the stupidity of America," Brown said.
But the commercial may have also done something else, something which was intended, Brown said.
"Are we talking about any other cereal brands right now? We're talking about Cheerios. That's the news. That's top of mind," Brown said.
That may have been the goal: an intentional ad, geared toward a quickly growing segment of American families. And it just may fall back on the old adage that "any publicity is good publicity."
"What is the objective? The other thing is to follow the money," Brown said. "What are they trying to do? Cheerios is trying to sell boxes of Cheerios."
While many people have come to the support of Cheerios and parent company General Mills, it's the negative reaction to the commercial that continues to make headlines.
As of Monday night, that commercial on had nearly 2 million views on YouTube. No other Cheerios commercial KSL News could find had more than 100,000 views.
