If you didn’t watch cable news or read easily excitable web outlets, you might have missed the online "outcry" in 2013, when Cheerios first featured this ad’s interracial family and racist YouTube commenters made it a story. But of course marketers by then were happy to be called out for inclusiveness (see also Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” in this same Super Bowl), so General Mills and Publicis Groupe's Saatchi & Saatchi New York stuck their thumbs in the eyes of idiots and made a hell of a cute commercial.
"Cheerios is about families and love and connections and breakfast," said Camille Gibson, VP of marketing for Big G cereals, on the General Mills corporate blog. "Our new Cheerios ad celebrates one of those special moments in a family that America fell in love with. The ad quietly celebrates the emotional sharing and simple joys we find when spending just a few simple moments together every day." Not for nothing the ad also successfully continued a campaign of oddly touching moments centered around breakfast cereal.
“Gracie” was released the Tuesday before Super Bowl XLVIII. It was the first time General Mills had advertised in the Super Bowl since 1996, when Honey Frosted Wheaties got a spot featuring Michael Jordan, Deion Sanders and Steve Young ("Time Out"). Breakfast cereal as a whole was never a robust ad category for Super Bowl networks, although Kellogg's also participated (see "Taste Corn Flakes" in 1992).
Director: Matt Smukler. Production Company: Community Films L.A. Directors of photography: Tami Reiker, Andrij Parekh. Executive producer: Carl Swan. Line producer: Carr Donald.
Executive creative directors: Peter Moore Smith, Justin Ebert. Creative director: Johnnie Ingram. Copywriter: Nick Marchese. Art Director: Taylor Lucas. Chief Production Officer: Tanya LeSieur. Head of Content Production: John Doris. Executive Producer: Dani Stoller. Music Director: Eric Korte.
Editorial: Beast N.Y. Editor: Jim Ulbrich. Assistant editor: Elmer McCarty. Producer: Valerie Iorio. Executive producer: Helena Lee. Post House/Telecine: Company 3. Colorist: Tom Poole. Post House/Conform: Gryphyn.
BRAND: Cheerios
YEAR: 2014
AGENCY: Saatchi & Saatchi
SUPERBOWL: XLVIII
QUARTER AIRED: Q4
