Honey Maid takes anti-gay backlash against commercial featuring two dads and turns it into a message of love

• As part of its 'This is Wholesome' campaign, Mondelez International launched 30-second commercial featuring different families, including gay and interracial ones
• Although the company received negative responses from some consumers, positive comments outweighed them more than 10-fold
• Mondelez released a new commercial addressing thebacklash by having two artists create a paper sculpture spelling out 'Love' with rolled up printouts of the negative comments
• The video response also showed that the number of positive responses far outweighed the negative ones
  

By Jonathan Block

Published: 10:38 EDT, 5 April 2014 | Updated: 11:08 EDT, 5 April 2014

The makers of Honey Maid graham crackers have come up with a unique response to anti-gay backlash by some against its commercial featuring two gay dads and their family. They printed out the negative comments and turned them into a piece of art that spells out ‘Love.’

On March 10, Mondelez International, which manufactures the popular crackers under the Nabisco brand, launched its ‘This is Wholesome’ advertising campaign. The commercial features several different kinds of American families,including biracial and gay ones.

The commercial, which has more than 4.7 million hits on YouTube, starts off with the two dads huddled over their baby feeding a bottle. It then cuts to the two men walking. Following, that it features other families doing everyday things while enjoying Honey Maid crackers.

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Two dads feed their baby in a commercial for Honey Maid graham crackers that drew an anti-gay backlash

At the end of commercial, the dads pose with their baby and son holding boxes of Honey Maid crackers

Honey Maid manufacturer Mondelez received some negative comments in response to the ad

At the end  of the 30-second spot, the two dads are again seen, this time in front of their house, posing with their baby and their other young son. A tagline accompanying the YouTube video reads, ‘No matter how things change, what makes us wholesome never will.’

Since the ad ran, the comments Mondelez has received have been overwhelmingly positive.

‘Beautiful commercial,’ one commenter wrote. ‘A family is a family no matter what. Awesome job, Honey Maid. This is what the world is, people will just have to accept that and open their minds to it. It's a wonderful thing. Love is love.’

However, the company did receive a fair share of negative comments.

‘Nothing like exploiting the gay community for some advertising and $,’ another person wrote.  ‘Keep your advertising where it belongs.’

In confronting the backlash, Mondelez on Thursday ended up releasing another video, where the negative comments are used in a creative way. The commercial shows some of the negative comments the company received. It then shows two female artist rolling up tightly copies of the comments and then gluing them together.

Mondelez's creative response to the backlash was to spell out the word 'Love' in script using rolled up pieces of paper with the negative comments

The 'Love' paper sculpture of negative comments is greatly outnumbered by the scrolls of paper with positive feedback to the Honey Maid commercial featuring two dads

The camera pans away, showing the the rolled up pieces of paper have been placed on the floor to spell out the word ‘Love’ in script.

But Mondelez didn’t stop there. The commercial goes on to say that the company received ten times as many comments in support of the original spot than negative ones. It then shows,in slow-motion, the scrolls of paper with the positive comments surrounding the ‘Love’ paper sculpture to demonstrate the overwhelmingly positive response.

At the end of the video, a tagline reads, ‘Proving that only one thing matters when it comes to family.’ It then cuts to the 'Love' paper sculpture.

‘Awesome reply to trolls!,’ one person commented. 'I don't even eat graham crackers, but I think I might buy a box this weekend.’

‘I don't have enough thumbs to like this,’ wrote another. ‘I want 100 more.’

Mondelez isn’t the only food company to use non-traditional families in commercials.

Last year, cereal maker General Mills received backlash after airing a Cheerios commercial featuring  a biracial family. However, the positive feedback was so overwhelming that General Mills used the family again in a commercial it made for the Super Bowl earlier this year.

Honey Maid graham crackers have been around since 1925 when the Pacific Coast Biscuit Company introduced them