Steven
B. Goldsmith
Editor,
Short Persons Support
Toms
General Mills, Inc.
To whom it may concern,
I am writing to express my outrage
and the outrage of my readers concerning the latest Yoplait commercial. The commercial shows two women at a wedding,
commenting on how good it is to not be ushered by a shorter man. What is it about
short men that make us unworthy of even being in a wedding party?
Short Persons Support has
received countless comments from short men who were shocked and dismayed that
General Mills would publicly single them out as belonging to a lesser segment
of society. In four years of operation,
no other commercial has elicited such a strong response.
General Mills has received
many complaints from short men about their derogatory commercial. Sadly, the company has not deemed it
necessary to respond in any meaningful way.
Every one who contacted us reported receiving the same form letter:
Dear Mr. _________:
Thank you for contacting
Yoplait. We are sorry you were disappointed with our advertising for
Yoplait yogurt. Our intent is to encourage both potential and existing
customers to use our products. Your comments are important to us and will
be carefully reviewed with our marketing and advertising staff.
We appreciate your
interest and hope you continue to enjoy our products.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Rogand
General Mills
Consumer Services
Other letters were signed by representatives
Jennifer Talbot and Gerald Vanberg but none had the
decency to mention issue hat hand. Some
have suggested that the letters were not even read.
It is time for General Mills to explain their
actions. Perhaps the company is truly prejudiced
against short men, does not respect them, and does not care about their
business. Or perhaps, as I would rather
believe, General Mills misjudged the impact of their commercial and are sorry
for the pain and degradation it caused.
I am willing to provide a conduit an
explanation. If you respond to this
letter, I will post your statement on Short Persons Support so you can make
amends to the short male community. The
Web site receives about 1,500 visitors a day so your comments will be seen by
the appropriate audience.
Sincerely,
Editor, Short Persons
Support