This week, two major brands issued their support for greater trans and gender nonconforming visibility — moves that proved LGBTQ+ rights are gaining a greater foothold in corporate America, even as they were met with skepticism from advocates who questioned how deep their commitments run.
On Thursday, staple children’s toy company Hasbro announced that the iconic Mr. Potato Head — which you likely remember from the Toy Story film franchise, if not from your own childhood — will soon see a gender-neutral redesign. Though the company still plans to sell Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head toys, the new line, titled simply Potato Head, will allow kids to create customizable “potato head families” with parts that allow children to craft same-sex pairings and gender-neutral characters.
“Hasbro is making sure all feel welcome in the Potato Head world by officially dropping the Mr. from the Mr. Potato Head brand name and logo to promote gender equality and inclusion,” the company said in a statement to the New York Times.
It’s a peak Gen-Z offering that’s not without its own capitalist aims. As Robert Passikoff, an independent marketing consultant, told AP News: “They are looking to broaden the franchise. You take the focus of what is essentially one character and now allow it to be a platform for many characters.”
Meanwhile, GLAAD praised the company’s new products in a statement, calling them “the latest move in a larger movement towards greater diversity and inclusion in toys and media aimed at kids.” Yet LGBTQ+ Twitter users shared frustration that such progressive children’s toys didn’t align with the lived reality of gender nonconforming people on the ground. “I’m looking forward to the day society gives us the same freedom of gender expression as Potato Heads,” Jason June, a genderqueer writer, shared on Twitter.
Hasbro wasn’t the only corporation to campaign for gender inclusivity yesterday; the official Twitter account for Oreo tweeted “Trans people exist” yesterday afternoon, seemingly unprompted, to its 900,000 followers. The tweet, posted shortly before Congress passed the Equality Act, came without further clarification or context.
LGBTQ+ people and advocates were quick to argue that the tweet came off as insincere. “…this is a room of old white people saying ‘how can we sell more cookies to young people,’” one user wrote in the replies section of the controversial (and viral) tweet.
The official account for Nilla Wafers, also owned by Oreo parent company Mondelez International, responded shortly thereafter: “Trans people not only exist, but are valued and loved by Nilla Wafers,” it wrote.
