Christian group furious over Cheez-It ad with ‘sensual message between two men’
The offending Cheez-It ad (YouTube/Cheez-It)
One Million Moms, a Christian organisation that opposes social acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and identities, is calling for Cheez-It to pull its latest commercial, claiming the ad contains “offensive sexual innuendos with an extremely sensual message between two males”.
The commercial, uploaded to the brand’s social media on 2 June and titled “The Boyfriend”, features a young woman introducing her new boyfriend to her dad. But rather than focusing on the introductions, the boyfriend becomes completely mesmerised by a floating Cheez-It hovering near the father’s face.
“Oh wow. You are even cheesier, yummier, and saltier in person,” he tells the confused father. He continues admiring the cracker, saying: “You’re making my mouth water. Just so delicious. If I could just…”
He then lunges forward and takes a bite of the Cheez-It, which is positioned directly in front of the father’s lips, creating what One Million Moms describes as something that “looks suspiciously like a kiss on the mouth”.
The joke is, of course, that the boyfriend is talking about the cracker rather than his prospective father-in-law. The commercial ends with him happily eating Cheez-Its while the father and daughter awkwardly discuss what just happened. The tagline? “Cravings can happen anywhere.”
One Million Moms, a group created by the American Family Association, was apparently not amused.
“This ad demonstrates weak marketing,” the group complained in a 12 August post to their website, arguing that Cheez-It should have the “corporate responsibility” not to use what it considers an offensive euphemism. The group has also launched a petition demanding that the company cancel the commercial, describing it as “vulgar” and “extremely irresponsible”.
Who are One Million Moms?
One Million Moms has a lengthy history of campaigning against LGBTQ+ representation and what they deem “inappropriate” content in advertising. Just this year, One Million Moms has taken a stance against Deochii’s Levi’s Jeans Super Bowl commercial, Michelle Visage’s PrEP public awareness campaign, and Megan Fox’s Dr Squatch ad.
Despite its name, One Million Moms does not appear to actually have a membership of one million people, and its petitions have historically attracted nowhere near that number of signatures. Its latest Cheez-It petition had slightly more than 12,000 signatures at the time of writing.
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