Is your favorite sandwich cookie grooming children? Another day, another company trying to influence the social mores of our times.
This story involves Oreo cookies and PFLAG. PFLAG, if you are not familiar with the organization, is “the United States’ first and largest organization uniting parents, families, and allies with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer.” It’s a big support group.
I like Oreos so this kerfuffle caught my attention. The timing is suspect because we are approaching Super Bowl Sunday and Oreo is airing its first Super Bowl commercial in 10 years, It is the first move by the cookie brand in what is expected to be a big year for it.
The OREO brand promises a spot that puts a playful twist on the cookie’s iconic role in pop culture. The Mondelēz International cookie brand will air a 30-second spot from The Martin Agency during the second quarter on February 11, 2024. The spot will be directed by Emmy award winning director, Dave Laden and produced by Hungry Man Inc. and PXP.
This announcement comes over a decade after the brand was last part of the Big Game. In 2013, OREO aired a 30 second in-game spot, “Whisper Fight” and made advertising history when the brand reacted in real time, tweeting the phrase, “You can still dunk in the dark,” after the lights went off in the stadium during that same game.
It’s going to be a big advertising year for Oreo. Here’s the rub – Oreo has a longtime partnership with PFLAG. The National Legal and Policy Center is blasting Oreo for “gender ideology indoctrination of kids.”
The National Legal and Policy Center is “a non-profit organization that promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education, and legal action.” That description is from the organization’s website. NLPC states that PFLAG condones gender transition treatments for very young children and supports books with explicit content in public schools and libraries.
NLPC released a 30-second video Wednesday that makes the connections. It claims the partnership is grooming children.
NLPC owns stock in Oreo’s parent company.
NLPC owns stock in Oreo’s parent company, Mondelez International, and will sponsor a shareholder proposal at the annual meeting in May. The nonprofit corporate watchdog and shareholder activist initiated its campaign to highlight the cookie-maker’s inappropriate relationship with PFLAG after it noticed the brand’s social media accounts – primarily on X.com (formerly Twitter) – were heavily populated with posts in support of PFLAG’s various narratives, causes and social advocacy.
Oreo’s longtime partnership with PFLAG includes promoting short films, special packaging, and fundraisers. It seems the connection with books in schools is the main problem. A press release goes into details.
In October Oreo also co-sponsored PFLAG’s National Convention, where the theme was “Learning with Love.” The meeting’s first session was titled, “Let Freedom Read! Read with Love to Support Inclusive Books and Education.” PFLAG characterizes its gender ideology indoctrination efforts in schools as a so-called prevention against alleged “censorship.” PFLAG co-sponsors a “banned books” website as part of a coalition that includes the Marxist-led American Library Association. Titles such as “This Book is Gay,” “Gender Queer,” “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Flamer,” and “Lawn Boy” are among the stories with explicit content that PFLAG and its allies believe should be easily accessed by kids.
“Oreo is a beloved brand with a strong identity and a reputation for connecting with all ages, especially kids, because it’s not only delicious, but fun,” said Paul Chesser, director of NLPC’s Corporate Integrity Project. “Now the cookie’s image-managers are taking it down the same dangerous path that Bud Light, Disney and Target have trodden, which led to extensive brand destruction. We urge Mondelez to terminate Oreo’s controversial relationships before it’s too late.”
NLPC essentially wants the partnership to end and softly implies that perhaps a boycott is on the horizon.
“We call upon our fellow shareholders to join us to express concern to the Mondelez board and to Chairman/CEO Dirk van de Put over this treacherous direction in which Oreo has turned,” Chesser added. “If they don’t, perhaps parents and consumers will have something to say about it.”
NLPC wants to preserve the wholesome image of Oreos. I get that. What I don’t get is why this is happening now. The partnership between PFLAG and Oreos has been in place for a long time. And, book battles in schools is not anything new, either. Where was the concern when parents and school boards began to battle over the books available to young children in schools that promote LGBTQ propaganda?
Maybe it has to do with the publicity that will come from the Oreo Super Bowl ad. The cookie brand is much loved and there will be millions and millions of eyes on the commercial. It looks like a brewing campaign against inserting politics in the snack aisle of your local grocery store or in your child’s school library.
Is it a matter of better late than never? Will Oreos be the next big boycott by conservatives, as happened to Bud Light? I don’t see it, at least not now. We’ll have to see if the objections of NLPC catch fire. In the meantime, if NLPC is concerned, why don’t they dump their stock and move to other companies for their investments?