A commercial, ending with the word “Love,” draws bigoted reactions from some.

June 5, 2013

“Vitriol Online for Cheerios Ad with Interracial Family”
Stuart Elliott, writing for the New York Times, discusses the reactions of viewers to a new Cheerios commercial that features an interracial husband and wife and their young daughter—a little charmer.  It’s a sweet, heartwarming ad about family love; and most viewers saw it that way.  But when the commercial was uploaded to YouTube, hate-filled racist comments were posted, resulting in a decision by General Mills, the makers of Cheerios, to close the comments section.  The commercial itself remains, however, and the company will “absolutely not” withdraw it, according to the associate marketing director. She told the Times reporter, “There are many kinds of families and Cheerios just wants to celebrate them all.”  Watch the 30-second commercial on YouTube; and then visit David Hayward’s blog on the Patheos site, where Hayward has drawn a touching cartoon, titled “Jesus loves Cheerios, hates racism.”

Letha Dawson Scanzoni is an independent scholar, writer, and editor, and is the author or coauthor of nine books. In 1978, she and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott wrote Is the Homosexual My Neighbor?, one of the earliest books urging evangelical Christians to rethink their views on homosexuality (updated edition, 1994, HarperOne). More recently, Letha coauthored (with social psychologist David G. Myers) What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage (HarperOne, 2005 and 2006). Another of Letha’s most well-known books is All We’re Meant to Be: Biblical Feminism for Today, coauthored with Nancy A. Hardesty (Word Books, 1974; revised edition, Abingdon, 1986; updated and expanded edition, Eerdmans, 1992). Letha served as editor of Christian Feminism Today in both its former print edition (EEWC Update) and its website for 19 years until her retirement in December 2013.

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