June 04, 2013

Cheerios Ad Depicting Transracial Family Under Fire

This recently aired Cheerios ad has been subject to a wide range of criticism from people who disapprove of the commercial’s depiction of a transracial family. Obviously, as adoption supporters and parents of our own transracial family, this feels absurd and we’re saddened to see so many so comfortable with spouting such racist remarks. The commercial drew so much negative attention that Cheerios had to actually shut down the comments section on their YouTube page. If you read through the comments in the MSN article, you’ll see that many people fessed up to not even noticing the fact that the family in the commercial was transracial. Others expressed surprise and sadness that anyone would have such an outright issue with depicting a transracial family on television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYofm5d5Xdw

Although it’s disappointing to see hatred being flown at what we think is such a positive, beautiful thing, ultimately, it calls attention to the issue and shines a positive, hopeful light on both adoption and transracial families in general. It is generating discussion, it has put Cheerios in a position where they have to publicly stand up for the choice they’ve made (they’re adamantly refusing to take the commercial down) and it shows that even though we have a ways to go with this issue, there are still so many more who are empowered by this commercial than there are those who are not. (According to the NY Times, the commercial received 6400 “thumbs up” vs. 700 “thumbs down.”)

We need to have more depictions of modern day families on television. We all know, because we are many of those families, that white families with two children are not the only families buying things for the home, or feeding their families. So why should they be the families predominantly depicted on television? We hope that other companies take a note from Cheerios and perhaps consider depicting all varieties of contemporary families in their advertising.

We’re proud to be a transracial family, proud to be part of an organization that helps build transracial families, and proud of Cheerios for showing us something that isn’t strange, isn’t abnormal, but rather, something that feels exactly like what our kitchen looks like in the mornings.