Oreo’s New Pride Campaign Has Broken Conservatives’ Brains
A new short film by Alice Wu has Republicans in a full meltdown.
Conservatives love to mock liberals for being overly sensitive snowflakes, yet Republicans repeatedly show themselves to be one social media post away from complete and total meltdown. The current thing breaking Republican brains? A two-minute allyship video from Oreo cookies.
Oreo partnered with PFLAG to produces a series of short films on coming out and allyship. Their latest entry “The Note” comes from director Alice Wu (Saving Face, The Half of It). The short film sees a young Chinese-American man practicing his coming out speech in front of his family in advance of coming out to his extended relatives. His mother reassures him that no matter what happens, he is still their son. It’s a tender piece that ends with the message “Coming out doesn’t happen just once. Be a lifelong ally.”
As far as corporate Pride sponsorship goes, this is a lovely bit of allyship, and a charming short film. And it’s backed up with Oreo’s $500,000 donation to PFLAG. Oreo senior brand manager Olympia Portale said of the film, “The Note is not Oreo’s story, … Oreo is there to lend our megaphone to the community we want to support, to illustrate the message we, as a brand, want to stand behind is a great place to start. How do you shine a spotlight on people whose story this belongs to?”
In response, conservative pundits reacted in a totally normal and not at all unhinged way. JUST KIDDING! They lost their goddamn minds over a cookie commercial. And we’re the overly sensitive ones?! Newsmax host/bobblehead Greg Kelly, who previously tweeted about the terrifying dangers of marijuana, gave a full-on rant in the voice of Cookie Monster. He then tried to besmirch the delicious taste of Oreos, urging his followers to eat Fig Newtons instead. Because nothing says all-American heterosexuality like … Fig Newtons?!
And Kelly wasn’t alone. Pundit and notable Man Who Can’t Make His Wife Cum Ben Shapiro also criticized Oreos for the film. But Shapiro is well practiced in delusional thinking, as he really believes he’s going to overtake Disney in childrens’ programming. Can’t wait for that live-action VeggieTales where Gina Carano plays an anti-vaxxer eggplant with rage issues!
Of course, conservatives showing their ignorance on social media is nothing new. But the depressing truth is that behind these mock outrage tweets lies a sinister political agenda. These people are radically anti-LGBTQ+ rights, and are currently putting their hatred into law via a wave of virulently anti-gay and anti-trans legislation. The Republican agenda is one that criminalizes and punishes anyone who isn’t white, straight, cisgender, and male. And while there is scattered online talk of a boycott, I doubt folks are going to quit Oreos anytime soon. In the meantime, conservatives can enjoy their Hydrox cookies and self-righteous hate.
(image: Oreo)
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