Writer Accused Kellogg's Of Being Racist, Was 'Pleasantly Shocked' By Company's Response
A writer put Kellogg's on notice via social media, citing the box artwork for their Corn Pops cereal as racist. The company's response would later leave a positive impression on the author, however.
Saladin Ahmed, a writer for Marvel Comics, pointed out something he noticed on his box of Corn Pops to Kellogg's. In his Twitter post on Tuesday, Oct. 24, Ahmed would ask why the design seems to be discriminatory.
"Hey @KelloggsUS why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? this is teaching kids racism," Ahmed wrote as a caption to two images of the box design, with one zoomed in on the offending section.
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Unintended insult to janitors aside, Ahmed points out that this art is something that children stare at every day. "Yes its a tiny thing, but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same," he added in a follow-up post.
Kellogg's response was quick, with the company promising reform the next day. "Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend – we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores soon," the cereal maker promised in their response on Tuesday.
The day after that, Kellogg's have an update ready. Via ABC News, the cereal maker announced that the box art has been revised and the new version will start appearing on store shelves.
"I was pleasantly shocked at how quickly and decisively they responded," Ahmed later said. The lengths that the company went through for the minor change impressed the "Black Bolt" writer.
His post brought him some grief, however, with social media posters adding slurs and threats to his mentions. He described some of them as uncalled for, given that " It was a relatively tepid tweet and Kellogg's is making a simple coloring change to future boxes, not recalling racist Corn Pops," as Ahmed explained to ABC.
