Last month, Honey Maid started a campaign called “This is Wholesome,” featuring families of all types in a short advertisement. The 31-second clip was uploaded to the company’s YouTube and Facebook pages and showed a multitude of non-traditional families, including single fathers, a gay couple and a multiracial couple, with the taglines, “no matter how things change, what makes us wholesome never will” and “everyday wholesome snacks for every wholesome family."
“Because change happens in improbable ways, we now have Teddy Grahams embodying the struggle for basic human rights,” one blogger joked.
The video seemed to come onto the scene rather quietly, compared to Coca-Cola’s 2014 Super Bowl ad. Most of the comments were positive and the campaign was deemed a success. Unfortunately, as the commercial became more popular, the more backlash it sparked. Negative comments poured in on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, likely from some of the same users who had a problem with Coke’s diversity ad. However, the ad gained the most notoriety after the official response video was posted (see below).
As many negative comments as there were, there were thousands more positive comments. Most sites that covered the story supported Honey Maid and the views expressed in the video. In fact, I found the video under the headline, “Honey Maid's Brilliant 'F*ck You' To Mean Commenters.” Not only was the video an excellent response to the critics, but it paved the way for other major companies to announce their support for the “This is Wholesome” campaign and the views behind it.
By posting the video on social media, the company received immediate feedback. They then used the negative comments to produce an advertisement far exceeding the goals of the first. Although it may not have been their goal, the campaign garnered more support from the response video than the original commercial. That’s what I call excellent marketing (and a brilliant use of social media).