Racism on social media in the Cheerios commercial "Just Checking" (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum, language: English, abstract: In May 2013, Cheerios released a television commercial portraying an interracial family which consisted of a white mother, a black father and their biracial daughter. The commerical sparked a controversy over race and what an American family should look like. For its representation of an interracial family it received such a strong racist backlash on social media that the YouTube channel of the company had to be disabled.

The seminar paper aims to develop a lesson plan on the sensitive topic of racism and its impact on individuals, families and society, using the Cheerios commerical from 2013 and the debate it sparked on social media.

The author starts by depicting the commercial and its reactions following the release. In the next step, brief information on the history of interracial relationships and current data on interracial marriages in the US is given. Then, the author focuses on short films and commercials by presenting their definitions and arguments for their integration in the TEFL classroom. The paper concludes with a realization of the lesson and an explanation of the didactic decision.