General Mills and Cheerios caused quite the non-troversy (controversy over nothing) last year with an ad featuring a mom, a dad, and their daughter. The video in question depicted an adorable child covering her dad in the wholesome O's after learning that they can help lower cholesterol. Seems pretty cute, no?
Nope. The ad set off a veritable maelstrom on YouTube because the mom was white, the dad was black, and the daughter biracial. General Mills had to disable the comments. The silver lining was an outpouring of support for Cheerios on the brand's Facebook page, and the cereal's commitment to representing "many kinds of families." Or, as we like to call them, "families."
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Now, the brand turns that negative experience into a positive campaign to help spread the message that the whole notion of a "modern family" needs to lose the "modern" and just focus on the "family." In this new video — part of the "Cheerios Effect" campaign, two Canadian dads share the story of how they adopted their daughter Raphaëlle.
Their only hesitation? Deciding how their adorable child should address them. "Do we call ourselves 'Dad?'" Beyond that, André and Jonathan have this fatherhood thing down. If anyone has a problem with it, that's not on them. "Being a good dad? We rock," they say in that French Canadian accent. Mais oui. (Mic)