I’m not sure whether I love or hate this commercial.

As someone who believes in the right to love and celebrate that love with whomever you choose I absolutely love it. It is a huge step forward in breaking through societal, religious and conservative barriers that surround gay rights, especially regarding marriage and adoption.

The commercial does a wonderful job of capturing the sincerity of the family’s love for each other. You feel as though you are part of their lives, part of the conversation.

We all work out time for each other. So we’ll always have dinner together. We’ll always share our best and worst of the day…it’s usually hard to come up with a worst. 

The family is, to many, still unconventional and confusing, however, the folks at Honey Maid were able to present them in such a “normal” context it would be hard for even the most conservative out there not to relate.

If the clip of Dad making fresh s’mores isn’t enough, the close-up of their sweet adopted son smiling with his labradoodle will seal the deal.

Even if I hadn’t been emotionally won over at this point, Honey Maid still had the subtle-political-undertones card to play.

What’s interesting is you said, you knew you were going to marry me, but that wasn’t even in our thought then. 

Like having a mortgage together was what marriage used to be for gay people.

The commercial manages to shatter the lines between a traditional, conservative family and a sometimes still “taboo” family dynamic by intertwining scenes filled with laughter around the dinner table and the arrival of their new son.

The message here is quite clear; gay marriage is normal, it is accepted and, dare I say, loving. This is why I love this commercial.

Here’s why I hate it.

For a whole minute and 46 seconds I was all smiles as I watched this family happily reminisce about how they met and the first time they saw their son’s sonogram. My heart had been warmed by the pure and genuine love they show for each other, all the way through the last scene of downright sweetness, and I wanted more.

Then, out of nowhere, the Honey Maid logo appeared and, just below it, taking great liberties in stretching the meaning, “This is Wholesome”…

As a vegan, foodie and a human being who simply values the health and well-being of the people on this planet, I was appalled.

For starters, the first ingredient in Honey Maid Graham Crackers is unbleached enriched flour. This one ingredient has to be “explained” with a six-ingredient-long list in parenthesis. This is because the flour has been stripped of all its fiber, protein and iron, but in order to make the flour “nutritious” these things are then added back in to “enrich” it again.

It’s a bit like showing your work on a math problem.

Secondly, sugar and honey are the third and fifth ingredients listed. Ingredients are listed on labels in order of highest to lowest amount, making these crackers mostly sugar.

Food that is nourishing, healthy and synonymous with the word “wholesome” just cannot contain that much sugar. It’s also interesting to note that Honey Maid’s main suggestions for use of the graham crackers, all involve adding more sugar like chocolate and marshmallows.

Lastly, there’s just no food in this “food.” Not including the pure sugar that is honey, not one ingredient on this label comes from a whole-food, unprocessed source, and even the honey’s origins are questionable. It is simply dead-food and sugar fashioned into a cracker. It is a product I cannot get behind.

I commend Honey Maid for showcasing gay marriage as a normal family dynamic and for defining it as “wholesome”. However, I feel as though the definition was confused when using it to refer to their graham crackers.

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Honey Maid Documentary: Dad & Papa/YouTube