Let's Just Settle This

I heard about this before my poor Mac G5 started having issues and needed to go get looked at. Now that I have it back and working (for now: upgrades to come soon), I felt the need to insert my own skewed perspective into what has become an almost ridiculous debate. What's everyone on about this time? Well, folks I'm a bit embarrassed to say it but here it is.

It's Cheerios.

Well, not Cheerios directly, but the maker of Cheerios, General Mills' new ad that's been on TV and online. It features a family, and it's about a little girl's concern for her father's heart health. And the rest, well, maybe you should just see it here.

Now, how on earth can anyone have a problem with a face like that? Or with what she did to look after her daddy. And the ending is just priceless. I LAUGHED. Why? Because it's just too darned cute. It's beyond cute. It's too adorable for words.

So what's the problem?
Sigh.
Apparently, this ad features an inter-racial family. Mommy is white. Daddy is black, and the little girl is obviously the product of both of them via a process known as...well, we don't need to get into that, but without trying to sound obvious or cliched, didn't we get past this? According to the Huffington Post, some people had a whole lot bad to say about this ad. Enough that a spokesperson from General Mills, well, spoke up and essentially told everybody who's up in arms about this to chill.
Now, full disclosure. I'm black, so I may have a bias here. But I would argue it's towards little girls who love their daddies and want them to be around to watch them grow up. There are worse ones I could have, and there are far worse ones that a still too-high number of people have. I guess those folks will be swearing off Cheerios (as well as Wheaties and Pillsbury...everything) from now on because, oh my God, black people eat them. And now the universe as they understand it has been forever altered.

Black people eat Cheerios. With their familes, some of whom might be...gulp, white. Or mixed.
What's next? The Apocalypse?

I groan.
All right. Maybe I had this idea that we were all past this and I wanted to indulge it for a moment. To their credit, General Mills is saying, quite boldly, that its brand message needs to reflect the America we actually live in, and that the traditional sort of Leave It To Beaver approach, while perhaps safe, is not authentic. I couldn't agree more. Turns out, the ad got something like 20,000 "likes"and maybe 1500 negative commenters. I did read some of the "dissents" if they could be so politely called that. I almost lost my lunch. There's respectful disagreement and then there's all out reptilian-brained insanity.

So. We're done here, right?
Cheerios ad: ADORABLE BEYOND WORDS.
Reptiles can stay in the swamp. We will leave you in peace.


More Later

KCD