Oreo's Gay Pride Cookie Controversy

Oreo's Gay Pride Cookie Controversy

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Updated Jun 24, 2022 at 03:36PM EDT by Adam.

Added Jun 27, 2012 at 10:12AM EDT by Brad.

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Overview

Oreo's Gay Pride Cookie Controversy refers to a controversial Facebook post made by Oreo cookies to celebrate Pride Month, resulting in a massive online debate in 2012.

Background

On June 25th, 2012, a picture of an Oreo cookie with six layers of frosting in the colors of the rainbow flag was posted on Kraft Nabisco's Facebook page.[1] The image was accompanied by the captions "June 25 | Pride" and "Proudly support love!" in recognition of LGBT Pride Month in the United States. The Facebook image post was instantly met by polarized opinions between supporters and critics of gay marriage, quickly escalating into a lengthy debate of more than 23,000 comments in the first 24 hours. As of December 11th, 2012, the Facebook post has accumulated more than 297,700 likes, 90,700 shares and 60,400 comments.


OREO Oreo Proudly support love! JUNE 25 PRIDE Made with creme colors that do not exist 匡Unlike . Comment . Share . 니 55,036 3,787 8,401 . 33 minutes ago via Oreo . You and 55,035 others like this View all 2,090 comments 5,080 shares Write a comment

Developments

The American cookie company's display of solidarity with the gay and lesbian community was mostly met by positive feedback on Facebook, but the image of the six-layered rainbow Oreo cookie was far from being impervious to criticisms and denouncements; many commenters openly expressed their abandonment of brand loyalty to Nabisco and its Oreo products, while others threatened to unlike the Oreo page and boycott the cookies altogether. One commenter went as far as to launch a boycott campaign against Nabisco on Facebook[14], which gained 12 likes on the first day of launch. As of December 2012, the boycott page has 116 likes.


Carlos Mendoza I am not going to have Oreos again. You want to lose a lot of your consumers just because some gay people in your company thought was a fantastic campaign. 3 minutes ago Like 6 Derick Arellano i'll stick to black n white. f--- gay oreos. a few seconds ago Like Stephanie LaBrier What a shame...guess I'll have to choose another cookie. a few seconds ago Like Richard Huebner I no longer eat Oreos 4 minutes ago Like 3 Janis Petron I wish they had a dislike button. You gay people make me sick, God made us to be man and women not gay or lesbian p.S NO MORE OREOS 9 minutes ago Like 8 Patrick Woolford I'm unliking Oreo because of this. 11 minutes ago Like 8 Steve Lee No more oreos for me or my family! 11 minutes ago Like 5 Trevor Day Gays can all go kill them selves they are sinners s and will hirn in hell

A separate boycott attempt was organized by the American Family Association organization One Million Moms[16], but it is unclear how many people participated in their efforts. Nabisco's controversial status update and the consequential debate over the issue of same-sex couples were soon covered by several major news outlets and internet news blogs, including Reuters[5], ABC News[15], The Guardian[4] and Los Angeles Times[6] to Daily Kos[8], Gawker[2] and San Francisco Weekly.[7]

Online Reaction

On June 26th, 2012, Redditor KGlitz posted a comment from the Oreo Facebook post criticizing the bigoted remarks, which challenged the commenters to boycott all companies who supported gay rights including Google and Apple (shown below). The post reached the front page of the /r/atheism subreddit, accumulating more than 13,900 points and 850 comments within 24 hours.


Hey bigots, don't stop at Oreo. Gwendolyn Google "companies that support gay rights" and lets see you boycott all of them. If you have an iPod, iPad, or iPhone, time to get rid of them. And if you have a droid? Well, Google owns them and they are also pro-gay rights. I guess you're going to have to find a new search engine too. Don't stop at the cookies. I want to see you really take a stand for your bigotry and hate. I want to see you live without favorite products and websites because of it, while I enjoy the hell out of all of them. Please go for it. Love, a bisexual woman. about a minute ago Unlike 34

The same day, BuzzFeed staff member Matt Stopera submitted a post titled "How Could Anyone Boycott a Cookie?", which compiled several screenshots of Facebook comments criticizing the Oreo post. Also on June 26th, Redditor gutter_is_a_tool submitted a post to the /r/atheism subreddit titled "Saw this while browsing Oreos on Facebook", which included a Facebook screenshot (shown below) of a woman being insulted for declaring she would no longer buy Oreos. Within 24 hours, the post received over 12,300 points and 1,160 comments.


NO MORE OREOS FOR THIS FAMILY!!!! Like Comment 35 minutes ago near Arlington, TX ou probably don't need anymore anyhow...try an 21 minutes ago Like 14 If fat people couldnt get married, she would be devastated 19 minutes ago . Like· 5 Don't worry Jamie.... others will buy your portion.... SOMEHOW 15 minutes ago . Like . amie you are an Idiot ;) 12 minutes ago Like 3 Cet more Honey, take a look in the mirror, you don't need any 4 minutes ago Like 3 od it looks like you ate too many already 3 minutes ago Like 2 atiashamed to be a Texan now :/Filthy bigoted a. 2 minutes ago Like Write a comment...

On June 27th, a petition was created on the website Change.org[13] for the rainbow Oreo to be produced and sold by Kraft. The same day, the Cheezburger site Memebase[10] published a post titled "Double Agenda is the Double-Stuff of Dreams", which included a Conspiracy Keanu image macro with the caption "What if Oreo supporting gay rights / Is their way of fighting obesity in the southern states?" (shown below).


What if Oreo supporting gay rights s their way of fightingobesity in the southern states?

On YouTube

Several YouTubers chimed in on the controversy with many criticizing the boycott for being bigoted and irrational.



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Raptured Asylum
Raptured Asylum

(Matthew 7:12) So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

(Mark 12:31) The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.

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