Rainbow Oreo Starts Massive Online Gay Pride Debate

When everyone’s favorite cookie Oreo posted a multilayered, multicolored biscuit on its Facebook page it was bound to cause a bit of a stir.

The Rainbow Oreo was posted with the word “Pride” and a caption that stated “Proudly support love” on June 25th 2012.
The Facebook profile has nearly 27 million fans and nearly 180,000 went to the effort of clicking the like button on the Rainbow Oreo picture, it was also shared several thousand times too!

Oreo are owned by Kraft, the world’s second largest food company.

The cookie company’s move to create the Rainbow Oreo comes shortly after President Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage in May. Oreo are not the only company to show their solidarity with the President. Despite being criticized for hiring Ellen DeGeneres as a spokeswoman J.C.Penney featured a Father’s Day advert showing two dads and their children in company clothing. Gap, Ben and Jerry’s and several other big organizations have undertaken similarly supportive advertising campaigns.

Since the image of the Rainbow Oreo went live, it has been a hot topic, with opinion massively divided. The Facebook picture sparked a massive online debate, with those who support Gay Pride pledging their support to the cookie brand and promising to buy them and the homophobic section of society threatening to boycott the sweet treat and openly criticizing the move. Nearly 20,000 comments were posted in the heated discussion and the debate also filtered out onto Twitter!!

Some people have said it is merely a clever advertising ploy by Oreo and Kraft as a means of exploiting the ‘pink pound’.

However, associate director of corporate affairs for Kraft, Basil T. Maglaris said in an email: “Kraft Foods has a proud history of celebrating diversity and inclusiveness. We feel the OREO ad is a fun reflection of our values. There has been a lot of buzz about the image, and it shows how relevant OREO is to people even after 100 years.”

Clever advertising ploy or not, I think that the more mainstream companies that show they are not afraid to show their support and tolerance of homosexuality, the harder it will be for hatred and prejudice to exist unchallenged within our society.

Those of you who like their sweet snacks brightly colored, will be disappointed to find out however, that the company will not actually be making an edible Rainbow Oreo for consumers to purchase!

Gay Pride Rainbow Oreo Sparks 20,000 Facebook Comments, Debate (Via LA Times via Washington Post)

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