Froot Loops is the latest brand to face right-wing boycotts (Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Another day, another right wing boycott and this time it is Kellogg’s cereal brand Froot Loops facing attacks for being ‘woke’.
The colourful, ring-shaped breakfast – which is literally a rainbow in a bowl – is under fire for a promotion included on its boxes in Canada, which offers youngsters and their families access to a library of free content focused on equality, diversity and inclusion.
Froot Loops LOOP TOGETHER library was created alongside BGC Canada and Kids Can Press to “help families explore diverse topics”.
The themes of the works in the library include gender, immigration, multiculturalism and disability and titles such as Maggie’s Chopsticks, My City Speaks and Razia’s Ray of Hope.
Kelloggs ‘wants to indoctrinate your children’, they cried
Prominent conservative commentators are, of course, outraged that Froot Loops is encouraging children and their families to read different types of books together and have called for parents to boycott the brand.
Chaya Raichik, creator of Libs of TikTok, weighed in on the outrage, posting that Kelloggs “wants to indoctrinate your children with breakfast cereal” and urged followers to “stop giving them your money”.
End Wokeness, an account on X – previously known as Twitter – with more than 1.9 million followers, shared photos of the Froot Loop boxes promotional tagline for the digital library, writing: “Fruit Loops is now encouraging kids to go online and read their free library of woke propaganda.”
Country music star John Rich, who previously boycotted Bud Light over its collaboration with Dylan Mulvaney, subsequently brought the Libs of TikTok post to the attention of his followers: “Hey parents, do your kids like Kellogg’s cereal?”
Radio host Alan Sanders also implied in a post that Kelloggs was “grooming children” through its diversity content.
Others suggested the brand should get the ‘Bud Light treatment’ and called the team behind the promotion “fruit loops” – a play on the brand name.
“Shame on Kelloggs,” one X user wrote.
“If I had a kid and they loved this, that’s all they ate, and they threw tantrums, They still wouldn’t get it,” another said, in reference to the brand.
“Fruit Loops diving into woke propaganda? Instead of feeding kids breakfast, now they’re feeding them nonsense,” a third commented, “Stick to cereals, not social engineering.”
However, in response to the backlash others mercilessly mocked the right-wing outrage.
“I’m outraged,” one commenter sarcastically wrote, “Evil Froot Loops are encouraging kids to read. How dare they!”
“Was canceling Froot Loops on your 2023 Moms for Liberty bingo card? You can’t even make this s**t up,” another said.
Another noted: “How sad of a person do you have to be to get upset over Kelloggs giving kids access to free digital books, and believing its “indoctrinating?” I remember when cereal boxes did give away books inside of them.”
Right-wing boycotts are commonplace
Despite labelling the left “snowflakes” it seems there is outrage and boycotts from the right-wing every other day.
In recent months, a number of brands have irked conservative sentimentalities by sharing inclusion marketing campaigns, products, donating to certain causes and charities or even just acknowledging that gay people exist.
Earlier in the year, the backlash to Bud Light give Mulvaney a singular can of beer with her face on it set off a chain reaction which led to countless companies, big and small and right across the world, facing negativity for their Pride Month and LGBTQ+ focused content.
Costa, Target, Kohl’s, Dr Martens, Starbucks and Nike were just some of the big names targeted with online – and in person – threats.
Target, in particular, faced such negative rhetoric it was forced to move some of its Pride-themed products to the back of its stores in the interests of protecting the safety of staff, after a number of conservative pundits filmed themselves abusive employees.
More recently, Target has been under fire for inclusive Christmas merchandise including a nutcracker holding a Pride flag and a Santa Claus in a wheelchair.