The marriage debate extended to an unlikely corner of the Web yesterday afternoon: Oreo’s Facebook page. The cookie company posted a six-layered, rainbow-hued Oreo cookie to Facebook and Twitter, commenting “Proudly support love!” and “June25/Pride.” The outward show of support for gay rights caused quite the Internet hubbub with 171,000 likes and 23,400 comments on the Facebook post by Tuesday evening.
At times, the comments were as black and white as a typical Oreo. Many responded positively to the campaign, like one Twitter user who wrote, “So glad to see a company supporting tolerance and not hate.” But others blasted the Kraft food brand, vowing they won’t be buying the iconic cookies anytime soon.
The controversy also spurred Change.com, a platform for gay rights advocates, to create an online petition in support of making the rainbow cookie image into the real thing. So far the petition has over 1,000 signatures.
But is a seven-tiered cookie even possible to make? TODAY.com put the question to Oreo representatives and the company responded, “The ‘rainbow’ Oreo cookie was created just as an online image and is not planned for sale.” Cue groans from cookie-lovers across the country.
Danika Fears is a TODAY.com intern who always splits Oreos in half before eating.