Cheerios Advertisement “Just Checking”

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Controversy is sparked when public disagreement takes flight. People are entitled to their own opinions, so long as they don’t infringe upon any individual’s rights as American citizens. Controversy tends to be heavily relevant when children, public figures and society un-norms join said event. Said event in this case is the Cheerios commercial entitled “Just Checking”, where an interracial family are the main characters. Involved in this commercial are what appear to be an African American father, a Caucasian mother, and a child of mixed races. Many different reactions surfaced after the commercial was aired during the summer of 2013. Reactions were mixed coming from the public but along with every reaction is the product company’s own reaction. Taking this project to the next level I was able to display the commercial to my fellow Michigan State University peers and friends to get a college reaction to the said controversial commercial. Attention was obtained when this commercial aired and there was no stopping the amount of views it would gain. Whether it be due to positive or negative attained attention it nonetheless became popular for a multitude of reasons. Bringing this all together, the main reason this advertisement is being discussed for controversy is the origin of the actor’s and more noticeably, the color of the actor’s skins.

Everyday individuals are the critics and they have their opinions that at times can influence others. When discussing the public and their reactions towards this advertisement there are the supporters and the non-followers. Controversy began when non-followers disagreed with the director’s choice of actors and actresses and following was the controversy of supporters disagreeing with the opi...

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...ing but some people themselves weren’t changing.

The Cheerios “Just Checking” commercial achieved its purpose of being one of the few companies to display an interracial family. Interracial families exist all of the country but are at times left out of television and advertisements. With everyone’s reactions came Cheerios counter reaction with a second commercial. Piecing all of this together you could understand that Cheerios knew exactly what they were going to get themselves into give or take the intensity. This advertisement is a perfect resemblance on how times are changing and so is majority of the public. During this time Cheerios created and strengthened their consumer loyalty giving them a sturdy foundation. With this foundation Cheerios is able to continue on their path in equality and maybe we will see more advertisements involving the new society norms.

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