For its first ever Super Bowl ad, Cheerios is telling racists to "stick a spoon in it."
General Mills is portraying in its big game spot the same mixed-race family that drew so many hateful remarks on YouTube last May that the manufacturer had to disable comments on the video. The bigot backlash itself provoked a bigger backlash by Americans who supported the video. The clip ended up racking up over 5 million views.
In the new ad, a black father uses pieces of the cereal on the kitchen table to represent the members of the family and explain to his young bi-racial daughter Gracie how she's getting a baby brother. Her white, pregnant mother looks on and makes a surprised face when the father assents after Gracie uses the cereal to bargain for a new puppy.
“Cheerios is about families and love and connections — and breakfast,” said Camille Gibson, vice president of marketing for Big G cereals. “Our new Cheerios ad celebrates one of those special moments with a family that America fell in love with."
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