Oreo’s New Campaign About Coming Out Has Conservatives All Worked Up

Ben Shapiro, the right-wing commentator most famous for owning a plank of wood and getting schooled by small children about taxes, has taken to Twitter to denounce Oreo cookies after they created a short film supporting the LGBTQ+ community.

The two and a half minute video, released on Monday, features a son practicing coming out to his extended family, with the support of his mother. As they anticipate the arrival of their relatives, the family is shown eating Oreos.

“Coming out doesn’t happen just once,” the brand’s account tweeted. “It’s a journey that needs love and courage every step of the way.”

It didn’t take long for Shapiro to lodge a complaint against the film, snarking that “Your cookie must affirm your sexual lifestyle.” He later followed up by claiming “the story is that every woke corporation now believes it must become an activist LGBTQIA+-%6& outlet. And yes, that’s a story.”

Companies releasing serious, uplifting short films that somehow connect to their brand, particularly in the age of digital marketing, is nothing new. For decades, we’ve seen commercials that focus primarily on family, or connection, or love, and just barely touch upon the actual product being sold. The issue here, for Shapiro and anyone else getting worked up over this, is that if they aren’t the ones being directly catered to, it becomes some sort of “woke agenda.”

We can certainly debate whether brands that promote inclusivity or slap rainbows on their products do so to increase their bottom line (they are, after all, for-profit companies), but that doesn’t change the fact that seeing LGBTQ+ representation and acceptance normalized even just in glorified commercials can move the needle in a positive direction — something that undoubtedly terrifies the Shapiros of the world — or that there are almost always people behind these initiatives that genuinely do care.

In fact, Alice Wu, who directed the short (along with beloved queer films Saving Face and The Half of It), is a lesbian herself. She also took Shapiro’s upset as the true badge of honor it ultimately is.

At the end of the day, a cookie company launching a campaign around the idea of being an LGBTQ+ ally is just a campaign. No one demanded it, it isn’t groundbreaking, there’s no rule that says all gay people will now throw their money at Oreo. And Shapiro’s little tantrum about it is just some guy on the internet getting mad that inclusivity is no longer taboo.

Casually acknowledging that gay people both exist and sometimes eat Oreos really just isn’t that deep. And that’s a good thing -- just not for homophobes.