In early March, Honey Maid launched an adorable commercial celebrating "wholesome" families of every kind that included a two-dad family, a rocker family, a single-dad family, a military family and an interracial family—homage to the types of families that are usually unnoticed (or at least underappreciated) in the mainstream media.
"No matter how things change, what makes us wholesome never will. Honey Maid. Everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family. This is wholesome," the ad quipped.
Perfect.
Except it wasn't.
Predictably, the Internet trolls came out to spew invectives, calling the ad "disgusting," among other tasteless descriptions. But Honey Maid didn't just let the comments sit. With a little bit of innovation and nerve and just a dab of a loving "shove it," the company decided to hire two artists—Linsey Burritt and Crystal Grover—to turn the negative into a positive.
In the new commercial, the two artists are seen rolling up papers with the mean comments and turning them into a 3-D version of the word "love." As the commercial explains, "On March 10, 2014, Honey Maid launched 'This Is Wholesome,' a commercial that celebrates all families. Some people didn't agree with our message. So we asked two artists to take the negative comments and turn them into something else."
Honey Maid also acknowledged the numerous positive comments it did receive. It showed the artists using the paper with these messages to surround the space around the previously spelled-out word "love.” The resulting creation just about fills up the entire room.
"The best part was all the positive messages we received. Over 10 times as many," the video proclaims. "Proving that only one thing really matters when it comes to family … "
Of course, Honey Maid isn't the only brand to air an ad deemed controversial. Cheerios put its own interracial family on air last year, sparking outcry from similarly minded bigots outraged at this blatant display of "racial genocide." The comments became so outrageous that the company disabled comments for the YouTube video.
Cheerios, however, responded in its own way to haters, simply airing another ad featuring the same family this year for the Super Bowl, even adding a prospective new baby to the clan.