On March 10, Honey Maid, which has been making graham crackers for 90 years, released a commercial that celebrated all different kinds of families. Their message refined the word "wholesome" by presenting real-life modern families in all their diverse glory.
The ad presented a gay couple feeding their new born child and an African-American father and a Hispanic mother walking with their three mixed-race children. All characters displayed in the commercial are not actors, but real families.
Gary Osifchin, senior marketing director for biscuits at Mondelez said in a statement: "We recognize change is happening every day, from the way in which a family looks today to how a family interacts to the way it is portrayed in media. We at Honey Maid continue to evolve and expand our varieties to provide delicious, wholesome products so they can be a part of everyday moments of connection in a world with changing, evolving family dynamics."
Despite the Honey Maid Facebook and YouTube pages receiving overwhelmingly positively; as predicted the video generated backlash from anti-gay groups such as the One Million Moms and the American Decency Association.
One Million Moms stated online that: "This commercial not only promotes homosexuality, but then calls the scene in the advertisement wholesome."
After receiving a flood of hateful comments, such as one viewer calling the campaign "filth," the maker of Teddy Grahams is responding with a video called "Love." The video takes the angry remarks and turns them into a piece of art, with printouts of rolled-up comments sculptured to spell the word "love." Honey Maid drowned out the negative responses wit positive ones.
According to a February poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, more than half of Americans now support same-sex marriage, up from one-third in 2003. About 20 percent said they strongly oppose it.
Honey Maid's latest video was uploaded Thursday has been viewed about a half-million times and has received over 10,000 likes, compared to 400 dislikes.
