Conservatives Boycott Oreos Over Their New Pride Packaging

Conservatives in the culture wars have claimed their fair share of well-meaning brands, including Gillette Razor’s #MeToo-inspired commercial and the backlash against the backlash against Nike’s Air Max 1 July 4th sneaker featuring the Betsy Ross flag. Now, even humble Oreo cookies are the subject of a new right-wing boycott — for taking the controversial position of celebrating inclusiveness. 

Nabisco’s Oreo created a line of pronoun-themed packaging to coincide with the New York City Pride parade, in collaboration with the National Center for Transgender Equality. The Pronoun Packs come in corresponding colors and pronouns of the transgender pride flag: pink with she/her, white with they/them, and blue with he/him. The oreos are also printed with the pronouns; Nabisco also created an Oreo-themed button that says “Ask me my pronouns.”

The Pronoun Packs were not available for purchase in stores, but they were distributed free of charge at NYC Pride. Oreo also confirmed that they are making a donation to the NCTE. “‪We’re proud to celebrate inclusivity for all gender identities and expressions,” wrote Oreos on social media. Of the collaboration, Mara Keisling, the executive director of the NCTE, told Newsweek that “We are so proud to partner with Oreo on this campaign and grateful for their support for our work.”

Still, no good deed goes unpunished, and conservatives on social media were swift to condemn the move. Commenters on Oreo’s Facebook and Twitter pages pledged to boycott the product, citing a “political agenda” they did not agree with.

It goes without saying that most, if not all of the criticism is transphobic in nature. Many mocked the inclusive move with jokes of the “I identify as xyz , can I get my own cookie?”

And this is why I’m glad that my diet doesn’t allow your cookies. You’ve lost a customer. Get woke, go broke.

— 𝕮𝖆𝖓𝖓𝖆 𝕿𝖍𝖆𝖓𝖊𝖜𝖚𝖑𝖋 (@CThanewulf) July 1, 2019

Nabisco thinks it’s smart to cater to 4% of the population while disgusting many more.

— Michael Reith (@MichaelSReith1) July 2, 2019

Is it possible to just make good cookies instead of stupid political statements??

— Lee Cummings (@lee_cummings) July 3, 2019

Luckily, the Pronoun Pack Oreos were applauded by many more social media fans, including actress Patricia Arquette. It just goes to show that love wins against hate every single time.

Beautiful! Hooray!!

— Patricia Arquette (@PattyArquette) July 1, 2019