Oreo, America’s favorite cookie, is stirring up more than milk today after Kraft Foods posted a gay pride Oreo on the cookie’s Facebook page.
Oreo posted the photoshopped picture of an Oreo cookie stuffed with rainbow-colored layers of frosting Monday evening with the caption “Proudly support love!” [In] 17 hours more than 157,000 people have “liked” the image, 40,000 people have shared it and 20,000 have commented on it.
But while many of the comments were supportive, some Facebook users pledged to boycott the cookie because of the post. “I’ll never buy Oreo again,” one commenter wrote. “Disgusted with oreos,” wrote another. “Being gay is an abmonitation in GOd’s eyes i wont be buying them anymore.”
Basil Maglaris, a spokeswoman for Oreo’s parent company Kraft Foods, said in a statement that the image was part of a “series of daily ads reflecting current events in a fun way using images of OREO cookies and milk.” Kraft is not planning to sell the rainbow-stuffed Oreo in stores, Maglaris said, as it was created solely for the advertising campaign in honor of Pride month.
“We are excited to illustrate what is making history today in a fun and playful way,” she said in an email to ABC News. “As a company, Kraft Foods has a proud history of celebrating diversity and inclusiveness. We feel the OREO ad is a fun reflection of our values.”
Oreo is the latest in a string of juggernaut brands to show support for the LGBT community. In honor of Pride month Target launched a line of gay pride t-shirts, and the proceeds went to support the Family Equality Council, a Washington D.C.-based gay rights advocacy group. The pride shirts sold out in less than a month.
Ben & Jerry’s, a longtime supporter of LGBT causes, renamed its apple pie flavor “Apple-y Ever After” in scoop shops throughout the U.K. in March, while the British government was debating legalizing same sex marriages. The Vermont-based ice cream company re-vamped its peanut butter-filled pretzel flavor in 2009 when same sex marriage was being legalized in Vermont, swapping the “Chubby Hubby” name for “Hubby Hubby.”
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20
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I actually got excited thinking that Oreo was coming out with a cookie like this. Enough creme filling to make you sick! :)
MORE FOR ME, LOSERS.
Good. More for the rest of us.
*phtttttttttttt*
I'm kinda sad they don't actually have rainbow creme Oreos, but still. More reason to indulge - Oreos are some of the only cookies I can eat. :D
Edited at 2012-06-27 02:26 pm (UTC)
It really annoys me that I've seen people on the internet sharing this graphic that is like "HURR DURR you're boycotting Oreo? WELL, look at all the other companies owned by Kraft!!!" I just feel that you should be trying to combat the boycott because it's homophobic and bigoted not because they sell lots of types of food. It's like that post here when that fried chicken company were outed as homophobes and people were saying things like "ohh but it's so delicious!!"
Sorry, my human rights are more important than your shopping.
Also, in b4 some silly straight person talking about their love of Oreos.
Okay I am still really goddamn bitter from the recent articles on Brave's Merida maybe POSSIBLY being able to be read as a lesbian and the gross homophobic derailing hetero feminists have done everywhere.
- popped up on my dash this morning
And here I am, disgusted because I think I'd hurl if I tried to eat that much cream filling. XP
I seriously wish they'd make a version of Oreos with LESS filling than the original, rather than more. That stuff is basically Crisco shortening with sugar mixed in. *gags*
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Yay for Kraft foods supporting Pride, though. ♥ Haters are welcome to stay pressed.
As much as I hate Kraft and all of its subsidiary and overlord companies, I do love oreos though. I just buy the wafers without the white stuff.
+ I'm happy to see innovative ideas from mainstream companies in showing their support for the LGBTQ community.
The hate is ridiculous and, as always, I'm shocked to see such behavior. Who are you to judge me for my sexuality?
And in Christian spirit (for the negative comments about "God" stuff) - isn't judgement a sin and can only be passed down by God Himself?
I'll betcha ain't going to hell for persecuting all types of wonderful people for something as human as love and affection.
On the other, my poor, brown queer ass knows that I can't realistically go off the grid~ or whatever the cool kids are doing these days to be totally removed from the system so they can, like, have collective art communities and smash the government through interpretive dance and organic, gluten-free bread sales. So I'mma keep buying Ben & Jerry's and whatever tacky rainbow shit I can find at Claire's.
(I'm being an ass and totally think that art is important in changing ideas and socities, but that's not the only way and I'm kind of sick of this idea that just trying to survive in a ruthless capitalist system means I'm betraying the cause~
Why yes I have reached the bitter old queer stage of my Pride celebrations, why do you ask?)
Edited at 2012-06-27 03:40 pm (UTC)
The ad shouldn't BE that big a deal. I never considered it as pervasive as pink ribbons,( perhaps I should) the companies I've experienced using the rainbow icon are generally doing so with honest intent and backing but if it makes the homophobes twitch so be it.
I'd rather see visibility, than trying to play "nothing to see here", when it comes to LGBT issues/rights/equality.
Somewhere in Alabama, a self proclaimed preacher is deep frying oreos in the hopes of singeing the sin out of them.
I just wish it were a real Oreo now. ;_; Maybe not a giant one with all the colors, but maybe a special package where each Oreo has one of the colors, but all of the colors in the bag.
I also think that Oreos could be made with colored striped filling running across the cookie. I know that I've seen two-color Oreo cookies before.