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
No comments:
Post a Comment