Cheerios commercial featuring interracial couple receives racist backlash

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A new Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial couple and their child was forced to shut off its comments section on YouTube earlier today due to a large number of racist comments.

Before the comments section was closed, comments included referenced “Nazis,” “troglodytes” and “racial genocide,” according to AdWeek.

In the commercial, a young biracial girl approaches her white mother saying, “Mom, dad told me Cheerios is good for your heart. Is that true?”  The mother agrees, calling Cheerios “heart healthy,” and the girl smirks and runs off.  The next thing you see is an African-American man, presumably the girl’s father, sleeping on a couch. When he wakes up, he realizes that there are Cheerios all over his chest where his heart is located.

As of this Friday afternoon the video had been viewed over 278,000 times with 4,627 likes and 708 dislikes.

[MSNBCMSN video=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640″ id=”msnbc859dd6″ w=”592″ h=”346″ launch_id=”52082858″]

In a statement to Gawker, vice president of marketing for Cheerios Camille Gibson said, “Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad. At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all.”

While the commercial received some backlash, it has also received some praise.

One Facebook user posted: “Just had the pleasure of enjoying a Cheerios commercial that featured a biracial family. Talk about ‘good for your heart!’ :)”

Watch the ad and tell us what you think.

Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.