How to make hateful comments a positive thing.

Honey Maid received a flood of negative criticism and hateful comments after releasing a commercial with non-traditional families being presented as wholesome.

This took place almost immediately after the backlash against Cheerios’ advertisement with biracial families in it, as well as the resignation of Mozilla’s CEO, Brendan Eich, when he was faced with outrage about his opposition to same-sex marriage. 

However, instead of shutting down, firing someone, or disabling comments on the video, Honey Maid turned the obstacle into an opportunity, with a very successful result.

Honey Maid’s launched their “This is Wholesome” commercial on March 10, 2014, which presented biracial and homosexual families in a favorable light. The speaker said that Honey Maid products are “everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family.” This video was aimed toward families, one of Honey Maid’s largest audiences, regardless of their traditional standing or not.

Honey Maid probably did not expect their audience and supporting network to react so strongly. But, in response, Honey Maid hired two artists to take the negative comments and make a piece of art out of it. 

The artists rolled papers with the negative comments printed on them, and glued them to the ground to form the word ‘Love.’ The artists then took all of the positive comments about the video, which greatly outnumbered the negative comments, and glued them to the floor surrounding the word ‘Love.’ 

Honey Maid released a video on April 3 showing the process of how the bad comments were turned into a positive thing.

“Love” has received over three million views.

Honey Maid also received feedback from other companies, such as NILLA Wafers and Betty Crocker, publicly encouraging and praising the video “Love.”

Through turning this obstacle into an opportunity, Honey Maid gained a tremendous amount of good publicity. Not only are their videos now seen by the families they were originally designed to encourage, but also to a diverse audience across the nation. These viewers are more likely to now connect Honey Maid’s name to family values and support for non-traditional families.

It can sometimes be discouraging to see such hate and negative reactions to things that should be wholesome, but I'm glad that some people and groups, such as Honey Maid, are taking a stand and responding gently with love.

Hoping to see more of this,

The Purple Writer

I like politeness

Maybe it's because my public relations classes focus so much on bad examples, but I'm pretty tired of the advertisements and campaigns that tear down other companies or organizations.

Why are we, as a society, so quick to tear down other people? Don't we realize that, even if we cut down other people, we are really not making ourselves grow any taller.

Yes, I realize that it can be hard to be creative, but if you are really so similar to another group, and can't emphasize why you are different, then maybe you shouldn't be in business. If your only option is to try to badmouth other groups, then you should spend that time to go find or make a niche for yourself.


I find it so refreshing when advertisements and campaigns are nice to others.
My favorite may be one in the series for the new Samsung Galaxy Pro Tablet. The owner of the Samsung tablet allows the other dad to save face when he tries to salvage some of his dignity. In response to the remark on having 'Pony Princess Hair Salon,' the Samsung owner says "I hear there's amazing hairstyles in there."

It communicates the point of the advertisement, the Samsung tablet features, while being nice to the owner of the other tablet, and being humorous. Samsung didn't have to tear anyone down, because they legitimately have a cool feature to tell their audience about.

Now, most of the other videos in this series of advertisements for Samsung do make fun of the other brands in a rather harsher light. They still focus on humor, though, and the idea that Samsung tablets have new features that would be helpful.



Wishing we could all be a little more polite,
The Purple Writer