Kellogg’s accused of ‘sexualising’ cereals over RuPaul and Dylan Mulvaney links
Tony The Tiger and Dylan Mulvaney at the 76th annual Tony Awards in June 2023. (Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)
A former Trump advisor has filed a civil rights complaint against Kellogg’s and accused it of ‘going woke’ because of Tony the Tiger posing with trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, and RuPaul appearing on a cereal box.
The right-wing not-for-profit America First Legal (AFL) filed a federal civil rights complaint against Kellogg’s to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Wednesday (9 August).
AFL’s co-founders are Donald Trump’s former advisors Gene Hamilton and Stephen Miller, who has openly attacked “transgender ideology”.
In its complaint, ADF alleges that the cereal brand’s “hiring, training and promotion practices are designed to achieve a balance based on race and sex that violates the federal law banning workplace bias”.
Miller also sent a letter to Kellogg’s informing it of the complaint and accusing it of ‘politicising and sexualising’ its products.
In the letter, AFL condemned a limited-edition Cheez-It-box from 2022 featuring drag queen RuPaul, attacked Tony the Tiger for posing with Mulvaney at the Tony Awards in June, and hit out at designs of cereal boxes the celebrated Pride month.
America First Legal accuses Kellogg’s of politicising and sexualising its products
The organisation’s senior counsellor and director of oversight and investigations, Reed D. Rubinstein, alleged that Kellogg’s “engages in unlawful employment practices by seeking to ‘balance’ its workforce based on race, colour, national origin and sex”.
“Instead of equality of opportunity, which Kellogg’s defines as ‘giving each person the same things,’ Kellogg’s employment practices are unlawfully based on ‘equity,’ which is a euphemism for illegal discrimination,” Rubinstein wrote to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
He further alleged that the “ethnic composition of individuals in positions defined as all managers and above” appear “suspiciously engineered by race”, and criticised Kellogg’s for aiming to achieve “an aspirational gender parity goal of 50/50 at management level in its global operation” by the end of 2025.
In his accompanying letter to Kellogg’s, Rubinstein added: “Despite the immense trust that hard-working American mothers and fathers have placed in Kellogg’s, management has discarded the company’s long-held family-friendly marketing approach to politicise and sexualise its products.”
In the letter, sent directly to Kellogg’s chief executive Steve Cahillane and the brand’s board of directors, AFL warned them of their “obligation to stop wasting the company’s assets and breaching their fiduciary duty to its shareholders”.
Rubinstein said in an announcement about the complaint: “Management has a fiduciary duty to promote and protect Kellogg’s business, not hijack it for leftist political ends.”
Kellogg’s said in a statement: “Our aspiration is to better reflect the diversity of our consumers and to strengthen our inclusive culture. We are committed to compliance with all applicable employment laws, and we have policies in place that prohibit workplace discrimination.”
Kellogg’s is best known for manufacturing breakfast cereals such as Corn Flakes and Rice Krispies but also makes Pringles and Pop-Tarts.
