Kellogg's CEO, Gary Pilnick, is getting dragged online after promoting his company's incredibly tone-deaf campaign aimed at struggling families.
Last week, Pilnick was a guest on the CNBC talk show Squawk on the Street when Carl Quintanilla asked him about Kellogg's "cereal for dinner" advertising. Kellogg's, which owns popular cereals like Corn Flakes, Fruit Loops, Raisin Bran, and Frosted Flakes, began its "Cereal for Dinner" campaign in 2022 with the slogan "give chicken the night off."
“The cereal category has always been quite affordable, and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure,” Pilnick responded in the video below. “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.”
When asked if this campaign might "land the wrong way" with consumers, Pilnick dismissed the idea.
"We don't think so. In fact, it’s landing really well right now," he replied. "Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now, and we would expect [it] to continue as that consumer is under pressure."
Pilnick, who is himself a millionaire, clearly is not in touch with many "consumers under pressure" because his comments absolutely landed the wrong way.
"i wonder if he thinks cereal is a nutritious enough dinner for his own family?" one X user wrote, sharing a screenshot showing that Pilnick makes more than $4 million annually in his position.
Meanwhile average food-at-home prices were five percent higher in 2023 than 2022, per the USDA. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, food prices have steadily increased, though frequently as a result of greedy executives rather than actual increases in production costs —a phenomenon called "greedflation." The Wall Street Journal recently shared a study showing that families are currently spending more than ten percent of their income on groceries.
People across social media platforms reacted to Pilnick's comments, some pointing out the hypocrisy considering his wealth, others noting the impact of inflation on food costs, and some criticizing the unhealthiness of eating cereal regularly in place of dinner.
"This fool [is] making four million bucks a year. You think he's feeding his kids cereal for dinner?" said one TikTok user. Check out their response and others below.
