Former Labor MP Fiona Onasanya has slammed Kellogg's and their advertising of their cereal brands Coco Pops and Rice Krispies. Onasanya took to social media on Monday. June 15, evening to talk about the difference between Coco Pops and Rice Krispies mascots. Coco Pops have a brown colored cereal and a monkey while the white-colored Rice Krispies has "three white boys".
Onasanya's tweet read, "@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-flavored)... so I was wondering why Rice Krispies have three white boys representing the brand and Coco Pops have a monkey?" She later added, "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...."
While her comment resulted in Coco Pops trending, many social media users called her out and accused her of being "offended at everything". One such user commented, "It's amazing how black people can take offense at the slightest thing, even breakfast cereal! Snap, Crackle and Pop are not three white boys, they are three gnomes with pointy ears and hats. And as for the monkey, well words fail me! What shall we do with the tiger on Frosties?"
"um... Frosties - tiger Cornflakes - chicken Sugar Puffs - honey monster Coco Pops - monkey Froot Loops - toucan Nesquik - rabbit. Kids seem to like animal characters on cereal packets for some reason. Can’t imagine why. Maybe we should make them all people instead?" wrote a social media user while another commented, "The monkey has been a cocoa pops Mascot for years. I'm 52 this year and it has been on since then. Do you know where cocoa beans comes from? They come from trees in rain forests. Monkeys live in rain forests. Can you drop the racist act now? It's getting stupid."
"The question is, Fiona, have any of the Rice Krispies boys ever lied to the police about a speeding conviction?" said a Twitter user referring to Onasanya being jailed in January 2019. She was convicted of lying to authorities about a speeding ticket.
While speaking to Mail Online, a spokesperson for Kellogg's shared, "It's important that we are all talking more about how we can build racial equality. Kellogg stands in support of the black community. We do not tolerate discrimination and believe that people of all races, genders, backgrounds, sexual orientations, 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. 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," the spokesperson revealed.
It has also been reported that Coco the monkey has been seen on Kellogg's boxes and TV advertisements since 1986. The mascot also helped the sales of Coco Pops increase by 90% between 1986 and 1992.
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