Racial equality is a hot button at the moment across the world and brands that use stereotypical images are taking a look a their products under a new lense. However, some companies are also being called out for their lack of awareness. Fiona Onasanya, a former Labour Party MP in the UK is one of those people calling out companies and her target is Kellog’s.
On Monday (June 15th), Onasanya, who was sentenced to three months in prison back in January of 2019 after she was found guilty of “perverting the course of justice” by lying to police about a speeding ticket, took to Twitter to bring a particular issue to light. Noting that she’d only decided to make the issue public as Kellogg’s had yet to get back to her regarding the matter, she questioned why the company uses Snap, Crackle, and Pop as the mascot for Rice Krispies, but for the chocolate version, Coco Pops, they use a monkey.
“Kelloggs UK, as you are yet to reply to my email – Coco Pops and Rice Krispies have the same compòsition (except for the fact CP’s are brown and chocolate flavoured)… so I was wondering why Rice Krispies have three white boys representing the brand and Coco Pops have a monkey?” she asked.
@KelloggsUK, as you are yet to reply to my email – Coco Pops and Rice Krispies have the same compòsition (except for the fact CP's are brown and chocolate flavoured)… so I was wondering why Rice Krispies have three white boys representing the brand and Coco Pops have a monkey?
— Fiona Onasanya (@Fiona_Onasanya) June 15, 2020
She continued to explain why the brand’s choice for that line for cereal is problematic. John Harvey Kellogg, the brother of Kellogg’s founder Will Keith Kellogg and inventor of Corn Flakes, founded a US eugenics foundation and was in favour of racial segregation, it wasn’t totally out of line to mention it.
Well, given John Harvey Kellogg co-founded the Race Betterment Foundation (the Foundation's main purpose was to study the cause of and cure for "race degeneracy"), it would be remiss of me not to ask….
— Fiona Onasanya (@Fiona_Onasanya) June 15, 2020
There are some who are not in agreement with the calling out of the mascot however. She was told by some followers and Twitter accounts she is making a big deal out of nothing basically.
I take it you’ve never been to an international football match and seen how our black players get insulted ?? Monkey chants… bananas thrown…hence the question is this innocent or further promotion of Mr Kellogg’s white supremacy beliefs.
— Deadly (@deadlysmedley) June 16, 2020
“It’s important that we are all talking more about how we can build racial equality,” said a spokeswoman for Kellogg’s. “Kellogg stands in support of the black community. We do not tolerate discrimination and believe that people of all races, genders, backgrounds, sexual orientation, religions, capabilities and beliefs should be treated with the utmost dignity and respect.”
“The monkey mascot that appears on both white and milk chocolate Coco Pops was created in the 1980s to highlight the playful personality of the brand,” the spokeswoman explained. “As part of our ambition to bring fun to the breakfast table, we have a range of characters that we show on our cereal boxes, including tigers, giraffes, crocodiles, elves and a narwhal.”
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