The beloved sandwich cookie has debuted a new short film, directed by Alice Wu, to tell a sweet, touching story about the family journey of a young LGBTQ+ man.
The latest piece of work from award-winning filmmaker Alice Wu (The Half Of It, Saving Face) is a short film about coming out. We meet a young man who appears to be stumbling through his coming-out process to his parents. But there’s a twist that extends this story from the traditional coming-out story to illustrate a larger point about the process, the struggle, and the challenges that don’t end after that first conversation. It’s also an Oreo ad.
The Note is the latest result in a multiyear collaboration between the cookie brand and PFLAG National, and is the launching point for its new #LifelongAlly campaign, which includes a $500,000 donation to the advocacy organization. Oreo senior brand manager Olympia Portale says the brand didn’t want to show another coming-out story, but worked with PFLAG, ad agency 360i, and Wu to find an insight for taking the discussion around coming out in a positive, new direction. That insight revolves around the idea that coming out isn’t just a one-and-done experience. “For many people, the only time their parents or family even acknowledge that they’re in this community is in that first moment,” says Portale. “That [subsequent] silence can last years and can be really harmful. So we wanted to show that being an ally, being supportive to family members, isn’t just about saying ‘I love you, and I support you’ in that one moment, but how you show up in an active way, so that individual feels you have their back all the time.”
Oreo’s first high-profile Pride campaign came back in 2012, the brand’s centennial year, with a Facebook post featuring a cookie stacked high with rainbow-colored icing alongside the comment, “Proudly support love!” The post was widely celebrated but also sparked a backlash, as it came amid the gay-marriage debate at the time. A decade later, LGBTQ+ rights are again at the center of the culture wars, as Texas has passed a controversial anti-trans law, and Florida has passed its “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The landscape for brands in this environment has only become more charged, as Disney has found out amid the Biden-era attacks on “woke corporations,” which take public stands on issues. After initially drawing backlash from LGBTQ+ fans and allies for remaining silent on Florida’s new law, Disney is now a constant target for Fox News and right-wing politicians for its opposition to the bill. Despite this fraught climate for brands, Oreo has continued to step into this issue with impressive creative work and zero hesitation.
This is the third consecutive year that Oreo has worked with PFLAG on its Pride campaign, which began with the 2020 short, Proud Parent. In that spot, a young woman’s father paints the yard fence as a rainbow to show his support. For Portale, the message of The Note is an extension of that first film. “What would’ve happened after the father painted the fence?” asks Portale. “That’s not exactly how we approached this project, but it’s about galvanizing a new generation of allies, to really understand that allyship is action, and it takes more than just showing up at Pride once a year.”
Oreo isn’t the only brand to create Pride work around a coming-out story. A 2016 McDonald’s Taiwan ad went viral, showing a gay son coming out to his dad over coffee at the golden arches. Last year, Doritos Mexico created a spot that shows a dad who goes on Reddit to find help to talk to his son, as part of that brand’s ongoing #PrideAllYear campaign work.
Key to Oreo’s strategy in creating content for and engaging with LGBTQ+ people has been its commitment to working with partners within the community. Portale says that this hasn’t been an overnight development, but one that has evolved over years; it has continued to get stronger particularly since partnering with PFLAG in 2020. “We couldn’t have done this without the help and support of PFLAG,” says Portale. “Partnering with them to do this kind of work, to make sure you’re not doing any harm, has been incredibly valuable. Having Alice Wu on this project was incredible and took the brand into a different space. The nuances she brought to the original idea were incredibly powerful, and took it into a different level.”
For other brands looking to replicate Oreo’s success, Portale says that first is to know what your brand stands for, and why it exists in the world. For Oreo, that is to be playful but also to bring people together. “Oreo is a family brand,” says Portale. “When you ask people their first memory about Oreos, they’ll usually talk about their family. So our goal is to provide moments for people to come together. When we think about how we can extend that into more meaningful topics or territories, we want to focus on the places when these connections between family members might be at risk. If we’re going to fight for a world where all families belong, this was a natural place for us to go.”
Stepping into more meaningful topics can be tricky territory for a brand, and one key to navigating that path is to know the brand’s voice isn’t the most important. “The Note is not Oreo’s story,” says Portale. “Oreo is there to lend our megaphone to the community we want to support, to illustrate the message we, as a brand, want to stand behind is a great place to start. How do you shine a spotlight on people whose story this belongs to?”
COOKIE! I love COOKIES. C is for COOKIE. COOKIE IS FOR ME. I do NOT like GAY COOKIES. "Sexuality" has NOTHING TO DO with the Cookie experience. Cookies are for ALL! Basically Cookies are "asexual"—why is the WOKE LEFT messing around with OREOS?!?! STOP THE INSANITY pic.twitter.com/TS3k5M4LQv
Since @oreo is "coming out" I'm going to remind everyone that OREOS SUCK. Taste like Driveway Gravel. Not MOIST. Even Nabisco knows the truth–the cookies are too DRY. Milk Reliant, not a stand alone cookie. Go with the FIG NEWTON. We don't care about Mr Fig's orientation! pic.twitter.com/1FtiQscnbU
A former Trump administration official now running for Congress in New Hampshire voted twice during the 2016 primary election season, potentially violating federal voting law and leaving him at odds with the Republican Party’s intense focus on “election integrity.”
Matt Mowers, a leading Republican primary candidate looking to unseat Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire’s 2016 presidential primary, voting records show. At the time, Mowers served as the director of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign.
Four months later, after Christie’s bid fizzled, Mowers cast another ballot in New Jersey’s Republican presidential primary, using his parents’ address to re-register in his home state, documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request show.
Read the full article. Mowers also ran for the US House in 2020, losing to Pappas by five points. Below is his Bridgegate testimony.
NEW: Matt Mowers, a Trump WH official now running for Congress in New Hampshire, voted twice during the 2016 primary season, potentially violating voting law and leaving him at odds with the GOP’s intense focus on “election integrity.” w/ @hramer https://t.co/b8iWZ14dh5
In Congress, I will always stand strong with our law enforcement community – not use our police as a political punching bag like Chris Pappas. #NHPolitics#NH01https://t.co/dXiuSZpSSE
2022 Watch: @NikkiHaley -in New Hampshire-on why she's backing @mowers in the crowded #GOP primary in #NH01 -a key swing congressional district- "I just don’t want someone who can win. I want someone who when they win, they’re going to prove they deserve to be there" #NHPoliticspic.twitter.com/JtbyD8RwGv
Get excited! We are headed to New Hampshire in support of @Mowers on Monday. We are fighting to renew the strength of America. Hope you will join us! 🇺🇸 #LiveFreeOrDiehttps://t.co/FvlRVRoKnR
Stopped by Sacred Heart Church in Laconia this afternoon for Ash Wednesday. Wishing a prayerful and peaceful Lenten season to all who celebrate. #NHPolitics#NH01pic.twitter.com/qWeAPnP6PC
Republican 1st Congressional District candidate Matt Mowers is facing questions about his voting record after documents show he voted in the 2016 presidential primary in New Hampshire and New Jersey. Mowers said his two votes were perfectly legal.
“I voted in total compliance with the law,” he said. “I voted here in New Hampshire in the presidential primary when I was living in Manchester, and in a totally separate election — totally separate election — while living where I was working in the New York area, because remember, I was working out of Trump Tower,” Mowers said.
Under New Hampshire’s law prohibiting double voting, if the election in New Hampshire and the election in another state are held on different dates and a person legitimately moves their domicile between the two states, they are in the clear. So, the federal law would be more in question in this case.
Read the full article. As you’ll see in the second clip, Mowers’ opponents are calling for him to drop out.
In an interview with @MikeCherryWMUR, @mowers indicates he voted a 2nd time in the 2016 presidential primaries to help then-candidate Donald Trump: "…if you remember, there was a time when the establishment was trying to deny him the nomination…" #NH01#NHPolitics#WMURpic.twitter.com/4gieoVYcc2
Republican officials are so determined to transform voter fraud from a flimsy pretense for suppressing votes to an actual phenomenon, they keep committing it themselves.https://t.co/cTAQSQn98N
Is this the time in the past the right wing dreams of taking the country? Is this their idea of the way things should be? The stereotypes drove me crazy, but it was actually funny to think that some people think families really were this way and they want to return to the ridged strict role models they think made people happy, not understanding those times were miserable for most people who had no say in their place in life. Enjoy.
Burns spoke at the ReAwaken America rally in Keizer, Oregon, last weekend, where event organizers claimed that “antifa” protestors outside the event were placing sharp objects under the wheels of attendee’s cars in an effort to pop their tires. While at the event, Burns sat down for an interview on “The Black Conservative Preacher” show, where he insisted that Christians should not turn the other cheek, as Jesus commanded, but rather strike back twice as hard.
“You see an antifa flag, knock out their window,” Burns advocated.
“Forgive me, Jesus,” he then added, facetiously. “Lord, forgive me. I’m asking for forgiveness right now.”
“The Bible says that ‘the Kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force,’” Burns declared, quoting Matthew 11. “The problem is we’re being too cowardly and too weak and we think that man has authority over us when we serve a big God who has given us power and authority to tread over every demonic spirit. So, if they’re gonna knock out a window, you go knock out two of theirs.”
“Jesus said, ‘Go buy two swords,’” replied host Quincy Franklin, paraphrasing a passage from Luke 22.
“Y’all better go buy some swords in the name of Jesus,” Burns proclaimed. “Go start knocking out some windows!”
Realizing that he may have gone too far, Burns then attempted to backtrack, insisting that he was not advocating violence but was simply promoting “self-defense.”
“I’m only saying that if they’re going to knock out our windows, we’d knock out theirs too,” he said. “They believe that we Republicans are soft and we are quiet and we are cowering down to antifa and Black Lives Matter. The devil is a liar. Don’t let my title [of pastor] confuse you. I’ve been waiting for antifa! … I’m here, come get me. That’s my mentality. Come get me. Want some? Get some.”
“I will Will Smith them in a heartbeat,” Burns pledged. “I’ll put one of them to sleep.”
Can someone tell me what the Antifa flag looks like? Antifa is not an organization, it has no flag nor members. I suspect he was really meaning the Pride flag and was really preaching to assault any LGBTQ+ they come near. Afterall everyone knows that they are the enforcers against things god hates.
Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, and a candidate to become the next president of the Southern Baptist Convention, has removed a deacon from leadership, citing the denomination’s ban on individuals who have committed sexual abuse from church leadership roles.
Rice did not identify the deacon in the video. But other outlets identified the man as Jeff Ford [photo], a faith advisor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who serves as the CEO of Man Up and Go, an international nonprofit organization that inspires men to fight for the fatherless.
A December 2005 report in The Tampa Bay Times said when Ford was 27 and worked as a language arts teacher and an assistant football coach at J.W. Mitchell High School, he confessed to being in a relationship with an 18-year-old female student while he was married.
“It did not involve criminal charges, and he has never been identified by law as a sexual offender,” Rice said in a video posted on social media. “Nevertheless, it was a terrible sin, and it devastated people’s lives.”
Rice went on to say that the church leader had repented of his sins and had been open about their past. Eventually, after years of being a faithful church member, this person was made a deacon — a decision that Rice said he now regrets.
He said that recently he was confronted by someone outside of Calvary who knew the deacon’s backstory and questioned why he was in leadership.
A 27-year-old language arts teacher at J.W. Mitchell High School resigned this week after admitting to a sexual relationship with a female student.
Jeffrey Charles Ford, who worked as a teacher and an assistant football coach at the school since August 2003, called a school administrator on Sunday night to disclose his relationship with the 18-year-old student. He met with the administrator on Monday and resigned.
“I’m saddened by it. I’m shocked by it,” the school’s football coach, Scott Schmitz, said Thursday. “He’s a good person, he’s a great teacher, he’s an outstanding football coach, but he made a very wrong decision.”
In the video below, Ford calls for men to return to “authentic masculinity.” Like screwing high school girls, apparently.
SBC pastor Willy Rice dismisses deacon and Florida 'faith adviser' over past https://t.co/cxKLos0PTW via @RNS
Remember DeathSantis is pushing a don’t say gay bill and removing books for the schools that have any sexual content or LGBTQ+ characters but he hired a guy who had a sexual relationship with an 18 year old student in a school he was a teacher at. DeathSantis claims he needs to act to save the children from the libs and Democrats but who is the real threat to kids in schools?
If they are not of straight White Anglo Saxon Protestant stock, or something similar, Republicans are terrified of them. I thought the only news story recently was that the far right was annoyed beyond belief that Disney was “normalizing LGTBQ” and recognizing that there are more families than the typical white family with a father, mother, and two children. Nobody, including Disney is afraid of or disdainful of traditional families. Accepting non-traditional families and treating them with respect TAKES NOTHING away from traditional families!!!! The fear is only coming from the ones who want want to go back to the days when all they saw was people who looked like, sounded like and worshiped just like them — with everyone else hidden in the shadows.
The Oklahoma House gave final legislative approval on Tuesday to a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
With little discussion and no debate, the Republican-controlled House voted 70-14 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has previously said he’d sign any anti-abortion bill that comes to his desk.
The Oklahoma bill, which passed the Senate last year, makes an exception only for an abortion performed to save the life of the mother, said GOP state Rep. Jim Olsen, of Roland, who sponsored the bill. Under the bill, a person convicted of performing an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Stitt, who contracted COVID in July 2020, announced a statewide day of fasting and prayer against COVID in December 2020.
On his inauguration day in January 2019, he declared that the primary mission of his administration would be to “bring people to Jesus.”
In April 2021, he signed into law a bill that legalizes running over protesters. Which is what Jesus would want.
Oklahoma House gave 70-14 approval to bill that would make performing an abortion a felony. Bill passed with little discussion and no debate. Passage comes as a "Bans Off Oklahoma" rally is being held at the Capitol in support of abortion rights. https://t.co/tzT2HTGfvi
The Oklahoma House gave final legislative approval on Tuesday to a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
With little discussion and no debate, the Republican-controlled House voted 70-14 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has previously said he’d sign any anti-abortion bill that comes to his desk.
The bill is one of several anti-abortion measures still alive in Oklahoma’s Legislature this year, part of a trend of GOP-led states passing aggressive anti-abortion legislation as the conservative U.S. Supreme Court is considering ratcheting back abortion rights that have been in place for nearly 50 years.
The Oklahoma bill, which passed the Senate last year, makes an exception only for an abortion performed to save the life of the mother, said GOP state Rep. Jim Olsen, of Roland, who sponsored the bill. Under the bill, a person convicted of performing an abortion would face up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
“The penalties are for the doctor, not for the woman,” Olsen said.
Similar anti-abortion bills approved by the Oklahoma Legislature in recent years have been stopped by the courts as unconstitutional.
“These legislators have continued their relentless attacks on our freedoms,” said Emily Wales, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes. “These restrictions are not about improving the safety of the work that we do. They are about shaming and stigmatizing people who need and deserve abortion access.”
Wales said Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinic in Oklahoma has seen an 800% increase in the number of women from Texas after that state passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the U.S. in decades.
The Texas law that took effect last year bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy, without exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
Also Tuesday, the Oklahoma House adopted a resolution to recognize lives lost due to abortion and urge citizens to fly flags at half-staff on Jan. 22, the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in its landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.
This morning I was listening to a podcast doing an interview with an abortion provider from Texas. She was talking of serval patients she needed to get out of Texas immediately because their lives were in danger. In one case the fetus had died and was killing the woman but legally she couldn’t abort the fetus under Texas law. In another case that was non-life threatening but also tragic a woman had been raped about two months prior and just realized she was pregnant with the rapist issue. She wanted it out. She begged the doctor but by Texas law the doctor could only get her out of the state. Some states have even blocked that avenue by making leaving the state for abortion illegal. In these cases there was no exemption to these laws for the life of the woman. Listening to this doctor talk about the real life situations and the things that clearly made it about controlling women and not about pro-life and how even attempt to prevent pregnancy was being made illegal. The more I learn about these laws the scarier the situation becomes. And to be clear these heartbeat bills are based on a total fiction. There is no heart beat at 6 weeks because there is no heart at that stage of development. There is a clump of cells that will turn into a heart later in development, it is called a something pole and it has a small electrical charge. But it is not a heart and it is not beating.
