[Verginius Rufus]

I've seen the commercial and wondered what the purpose was--why did General Foods go out of its way to show an interracial couple? Were they trying to show how "enlightened" they are or were they hoping for controversy which could then be denounced as racist?

I don't think they would have shown an interracial couple where the husband was white and the wife was black. That would have gotten negative feedback from groups they don't want to offend.

[nascarnation]

why did General Foods go out of its way to show an interracial couple?

In the era of Baraq, I'm surprised we haven't seen a lot of these.

[UCANSEE2]

or were they hoping for controversy which could then be denounced as racist?

Only because the controversy would sell more cereal. It's about money, not racism.

What is it they say?.... the only bad publicity is no publicity.

[ConservativeStatement]

Or why men are constantly ridiculed in ads. A car ad currently aired shows where a woman who slaps a man across the face. Imagine a man slapping a woman? There is one playing now for a hotel chain in which a man is home in curlers while his wife is on a business trip. About five years, a hotel discount website showed two white guys blowing bubbles through a straw/hose while a black guy was bathing— the point of the ad was not to get fooled by online hotel discount sites that would call that a spa; however, how would the ad have aired if the races where switched? And then there are the Progressive Insurance ads. I seem to remember one ad where a woman used a scissors through a computer graphic to cut her man’s private parts because she saw him talking to a woman in a bar via a web cam.

[VRWC For Truth]

The premise of the commercial is that eating Cheerios helps with heart disease. So the daughter in the commercial wants the overweight guy on the couch to eat them to be healthier. In the PC world of all things need to look like the rest of America (meaning no caucasions) they put an interracial family in the commercial. Men, overweight individuals, and persons of color, tend to have higher incidents of higher blood pressure and heart disease, so Cheerios is marketing the cereal to those groups. The guy on the couch is a two-fer. Diversity and health marketing. The low information racists saw the overweight person of color on the couch as a stereotype.

[Eepsy]

It’s quite possible they cast the girl first, then found parents to match. She was awfully adorable....