[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYofm5d5Xdw]
It was supposed to be a charming commercial about a little girl trying to “treat” her dad’s heart with Cheerios. Instead the 30-second clip featuring a bi-racial family got so many negative reactions on YouTube that the video’s comment section was taken down a day after the ad appeared online.
Shot up to Reddit’s front page with 1033 remarks, the “Just Checking” video–which debuted on Wednesday–had also been viewed on YouTube over a quarter of a million times, garnering 3,776 thumbs ups, versus 657 thumbs downs as of 1:30p.m. E.T. Friday. Before the YouTube comments section was disabled on Thursday, it was bombarded with remarks referencing Nazis, “troglodytes” and “racial genocide,” according to Adweek.
(MORE: Modern Family: More Likely to Be Multigenerational, Unmarried or Interracial)
Now viewers have found a different outlet: Comments regarding the commercial have been posted on other Cheerios videos, particularly one featuring an African-American family. A note posted around noon E.T. on Friday to Cheerios “Big Brother” video read: “Is it just me, or does it seem like all the grumpy racists who can’t comment on the Cheerios commercial featuring the black dad and white mom with a biracial daughter because the comments were disabled… just threw a tantrum and migrated to this video to spew their filth?”