Recently I read on Allison Lee’s blog “ Rainbow Oreos Sparking Internet Outrage”.   Based on her research, Kraft’s Oreo replaced the traditional white icing into rainbow colored icing in its advertisement in order to show support for world Pride last year.  Because of this, many homophobic consumers expressed their anger and disgust toward Oreos new appearance.  Facebook became the major platform expressing their outrage among social medias.  They posted their point of view with strong resistance to the new change.  Many threatened that they will switch into another cookie brand and never buy Oreo again.

Nevertheless, even though the Facebook uproar has brought negative effects on Oreos, Allison’s mentioned that it is still a brilliant marking strategy; I agree completely on that.  This incident has brought Oreos out to the public again and gained a large amount of attention.  Those who did not cared so much of this cookies brand may started to pay attention when they walk pass by the shelf that stands Oreos.  She also talked about that she was disappointed how this new rainbow colored Oreos cookies was a purely marketing campaign. The company wasn’t planning to sell it in the market.  After this Internet outrage and public attention, it could’ve been a great opportunity for them to introduce a new product, and could’ve further distinguished the brand from other cookies by showing support to equality.

The public might have forgot the incident already after a yearlong; after all, it was just a moment of heat.

Cited:

“Rainbow Oreos sparking Internet Outrage” by Allison Lee,  Nov 16, 2013 <https://blogs.ubc.ca/allisonlee/>