Tuesday night’s episode of Atlanta featured a unique framing device: The entire episode, written and directed by Atlanta creator Donald Glover, was aired as though the viewer was watching a faux, BET-like channel called the Black American Network. This called for some sharp parody commercials for real-life products including Swisher Sweets, Dodge Charger, and Arizona Iced Tea—but the standout of the lot was for a fictional cereal called Coconut Crunchos. It’s a spot-on animated ad that starts off satirizing cereal commercials in general: A trio of cute kids must prevent a thieving but lovable mascot from stealing their delicious cereal in an unlikely setting. Hilarious!
Except that suddenly, the commercial suddenly takes a dark turn and instead becomes a demonstration of police brutality when the (white) police officer on the scene tackles the pesky wolf. “I could be eating these kids, but I’m out here eating cereal,” he pleads, and as the kids protest the disproportionate show of force—it’s just cereal, after all—one pulls out a smartphone to record the incident.
Twitter was quick to react.
