Frankly – from this PR and Marketeer Momma’s perspective – y’all aren’t really interested in diversity, inclusiveness, or “wholesome” goodness. You’re not in-touch or sympathetic with the day-to-day struggles that real, average American families face. You’re just leveraging a trending topic (in this case, gay marriage) to make your ad go viral so you can sell more crackers. When you really think about it, this treatment is demeaning to minority and mainstream families alike, and ought to be considered tacky.

Dear Honey Maid & Nabisco,

Your recent commercial, which purports to advocate for gay couples, is a marketing con.

As Assistant Professor Stephen Engel of Bates College points out in TPM, the homosexual couple depicted in your ad are far from typical. Besides being rich, they’re also about as straight and idealistically masculine looking as men come. In fact, to me, they look like two affluent, clad-in-plaid, straight dads on their way to a Baptist men’s Bible study.

Firstly, if you really wanted to be diverse and inclusive, you’d have started out by accurately depicting the demographic you purport to advocate for. Sure, there are some gay guys who wear plaid and live in expensive suburban dream-homes, but these guys are on the far conservative end of the homosexual spectrum.

Secondly, you might have considered casting someone like this couple.

Or what about this husband and father, Nick Vujicic, who was born with no arms or legs, and devotes his life to advocating for disabled people, empowering kids, and putting a stop to bullying? It doesn’t get much more wholesome than Nick.

Oh! And what about the penny-pinching single mom in second-hand yoga pants with regurgitated graham cracker stuck in her hair? What about the overweight mom and dad who love their kids more than anything? What about the Christians worshiping Jesus Christ on Sunday morning with their kids in the service as a family? What about the pro-life teen mom who lives with her parents and is facing an uphill battle to finish college? What about the dirt poor inner-city couple struggling to protect their kids from gang violence, drugs, and racism, in a neighborhood vandalized with graffiti?

Do they embarrass you? Are they not the sort of thin, attractive, rich, trendy people you want in your ads? Seriously, none of the cast in your ad made it past my BS detector. They may all be real couples, but your make-up and set designers definitely did their jobs well.

Yeah, you threw a dad in uniform in there, and there was a nice little shot of an interracial couple holding hands, but until you are inclusive of coupon-clipping low-to-middle class families in messy homes with real-world challenges, your cast is about as ordinary and down-to-earth to me as a bunch of Abercrombie & Fitch models pushing $800 strollers.

Frankly – from this PR and Marketeer Momma’s perspective – y’all aren’t really interested in diversity, inclusiveness, or “wholesome” goodness. You’re not in-touch or sympathetic with the day-to-day struggles that real, average American families face. You’re just leveraging a trending topic (in this case, gay marriage) to make your ad go viral so you can sell more crackers. When you really think about it, this treatment is demeaning to minority and mainstream families alike, and ought to be considered tacky.

This video isn’t a major cultural milestone. It’s not a revolutionary cry for tolerance. It’s not even an educational statement to advocate open-mindedness. It’s a thinly veiled marketing ploy to sell sugary carb-o-licious snacks that have almost no nutritional value and shovel money into the already bulging bank accounts of Honey Maid and Nabisco.

So … nice try guys … good luck at your next campaign brainstorming session!

Sincerely,

A Stay At Home Mom

With a Toddler

And a Bun in the Oven

And drooly-cracker-slime in her hair.

Jennifer Grassman Greenberg, an award winning recording artist, has produced, designed artwork for, distributed and promoted four full length CDs and one EP. She has designed multiple websites, product packages, and coordinated campaigns for numerous artists, companies, and non-profits. This article is used with permission.

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