In 2012 interracial marriages hit an all-time high with 4.8 million and this is due to the influx of Asian and Hispanic immigrants, providing a deeper pool of prospective partners. Yet, there are those still out there that aren’t tolerant and an example of this came a couple of days ago when Cheerios got forced to disable comments on a Youtube video of an ad after racist comments got posted.
There was a slight possibility of the ad getting taken down yet Marketing director Meredith Tutterow said “absolutely not.” She also went on to say “there are many kinds of families, and Cheerios just wants to celebrate them all.” As for the ad itself it featured interracial parents with their young daughter who asked about the health benefits of the cereal.
John Eighmey an Advertising professor from the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication claimed that “You take that risk anytime you offer up anything on a website. There is an element predisposed to make negative comments, and they pounce on it.”
Basically his argument is that a video posted on Youtube no matter what the content is. Such as this teenager covering Van Halen did receive negative comments even though she didn’t deserve it.
While it’s an interesting phenomenon to think about in this case it’s likely a small percentage of those comments towards Cheerios would fit in that category and the majority that got posted were racists. Going back to last year according to a Huffington Post article 29 percent of likely GOP voters in Mississippi felt that interracial marriages should be illegal and 17 percent weren’t sure and in Alabama 21 percent also felt that it should be illegal.
Unfortunately there will always be people who become prejudiced, who will stereotype people and will hate for no reason. Thankfully Cheerios made the smart decision by not allowing comments and will keep the ad up.