Highlights
- Kellogg's CEO Gary Pilnick faces criticism for suggesting people eat cereal for dinner due to rising food prices.
- Despite Pilnick's confidence, consumer sentiment on YouTube and Twitter is overwhelmingly negative.
- Americans are spending more on food, making Pilnick's "cereal for dinner" idea tone-deaf and insensitive.
In late February, Kellogg's CEO Gary Pilnick advised Americans struggling to afford food to eat cereal for dinner – swiftly leading to backlash both on and off the internet.
On February 26th, a post about Pilnick's remarks was shared to Reddit's r/NotTheOnion, a subreddit for news that sounds like The Onion's satirical news but isn't:
The Kellogg's CEO's "cereal for dinner" remarks also led to significant backlash on Twitter.
Let's start at the beginning.
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On February 21st, CNBC shared a segment featuring Kellogg's CEO Gary Pilnick from Squawk On The Street,one of the network's programs, to YouTube.
It was titled "WK Kellogg CEO Gary Pilnick: 'Cereal for dinner' is trending for consumers under price pressure."
An appended "description" for the segment, which clocked in at just under four minutes, indicated the segment was about soaring food prices and consumer sentiment:
"Gary Pilnick, WK Kellogg co-chairman and CEO, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the consumer share of income spent on food, what's landing well with the consumer, and Pilnick's conversations with clients like Walmart and Target."
At the beginning of the video, CNBC host Carl Quintanilla first referenced a speaking engagement then-recently attended by Pilnick:
Quintanilla then mentioned an article published by the Wall Street Journal on the same date (February 21st), titled "It’s Been 30 Years Since Food Ate Up This Much of Your Income."
The WSJ article in question pertained to the fact that food prices remained at a high not seen since the 1990s, as did the segment.
After Quintanilla mentioned the piece in the Journal, Pilnick's "cereal for dinner" pitch began, and the Kellogg's CEO said in part:
"The cereal category has always been quite affordable, and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure, so some of the things that we're doing is first messaging, we gotta reach the consumer where they are, so we're advertising about cereal for dinner ..."
“If you think about the cost of cereal for a family versus what they might otherwise do, that’s going to be much more affordable ... we talk about making sure that we have the right pack at the right price in the right place. So, having a different sized pack that’ll have a different price point, that'll take some pressure off the consumer while they're shopping.
"So, those are some of the things that we’re doing, but, in general, the cereal category is a place that a lot of folks might come to, because the price of a bowl of cereal with milk and with fruit is less than a dollar. So you can imagine why a consumer under pressure might find that to be a good place to go."
As Pilnick indicated, Kellogg's "cereal for dinner" marketing strategy appeared in advertisements, such as one shared to YouTube back in August 2022:
To Quintilla's credit, immediately after Pilnick recommended "cereal for dinner," the CNBC host responded:
I'm all for innovation and marketing, but the idea of having cereal for dinner ... is there the potential for that to... land the wrong way?
Pilnick demurred, asserting in response:
"We don't think so. In fact, it's landing really well right now, Carl."
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Pilnick seemed confident Kellogg's "cereal for dinner" marketing was "landing really well" – but comments under the video told a different story.
Two of the top YouTube comments characterized some immediate consumer sentiment, reading:
"I'm sorry but who and what ceo would even have the confidence to say something like this? I'm 30 something and cereal for dinner isn't nutrition. Low income does this for something vs nothing."
"Could you imagine his maid serving up cereal prepared by his chef on his fine china to his wife and children for dinner😂"
Variations of "let them eat cake" were rife in the comments, and another user responded to Pilnick's references to smaller cereal boxes:
"People: we don't have dinner, we starving
"CEO: then just eat cereals
"People: but they expensive
"CEO: We hear you! we're making the packs smaller, so it costs less <3"
On the above-linked Reddit post, comments were similar, but not everyone was laughing:
"Cereal is like $7-8 a box now for the big boxes that hold less than the normal size did years ago. Cheaper to make your own meal out of other things.
"I rarely buy cereal anymore. Let them eat cake has become let them eat cereal? Well I hope he remembers what happened to the one who said the cake line."
It's not entirely clear where Pilnick's "cereal for dinner" line was "going over well," because discourse on Twitter (X) was roundly critical.
Users described the remarks as indicative of "greedflation," and cited Kellogg's profitability in recent quarters:
Kellogg's CEO Gary Pilnick's "cereal for dinner" comments came at a time when Americans more routinely struggle to afford groceries, spending more than eleven percent of their disposable income on food in 2022, per the USDA.
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