[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwReRl4Z7EQ]
In a one-two punch aimed at the intolerant response to the recent Cheerios ad featuring the bi-racial daughter of a black father and a white mother, a new YouTube video posted on June 10 features an equally adorable mixed-race girl whose parents happen to both be women.
The original Cheerios ad, posted to YouTube in late May, got so many bigoted responses that the comments section was disabled soon after it debuted. The new parody video, which had nearly 400,000 views by mid-day on June 17, is likely to rankle both opponents of same-sex unions as well as those who oppose mixed-race couples, with the girl’s white mom bluntly saying: “I say we have the God-given right to stuff our faces with whatever we want and with whomever we want–no matter what the haters say.”
(WATCH: Cheerios Commercial Showing Biracial Family Riles Haters)
Co-written and directed by Kenji, a self-professed “Lt. Commander of the Cheerios Army,” this video is as endearing as the ad it spoofed was supposed to be. Similarly, it hasn’t been impervious to hateful comments, such as “No, these cultures/races aren’t compatible in terms of living together.” The parody has garnered almost the same ratio of thumb ups to thumb downs (5,206 to 187, respectively, as of this morning) as the actual ad from a few weeks ago (46,404 to 2,175, respectively).
Amazingly, unlike the heated debate that led to the original ad’s comment section getting shutdown, the parody’s comments are still going strong, with the voted favorite amongst 2000+ commentators: “Heart-warming and funny! Love it.” All the while, some are continuing to question how it struck such a controversial chord in the first place: “Why does the Cheerios ad create such a huge hate when K-mart father’s day ad potrays a mix family too.”
MORE: The Uproar Over the Biracial Cheerios Ad Is Actually Progress