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In preparation for a boycott against cereal goliath Kellogg\u2019s, TikToker Mandy Donley said, Let them eat flakes.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old home baker is milling her own corn to make homemade Corn Flakes, a Kellogg\u2019s product dupe, and posted a TikTok of the recipe\u2014as well as a call to action to boycott the snack food conglomerate.<\/p>\n
WK Kellogg<\/a> CEO Gary Pilnick said in a Feb. 21 CNBC interview<\/a> that cash-strapped families should eat \u201ccereal for breakfast\u201d as a way to save money.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe cereal category has always been quite affordable, and it tends to be a great destination when consumers are under pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While the phrase has been used in Kellogg\u2019s marketing for years<\/a>, it\u2019s rubbed consumers the wrong way amid inflation-induced grocery cost increases<\/a>\u2014which were 5% higher in 2023 than the year before. Even as inflation rates level off<\/a>, prices of food and drink basics have stayed high.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this mega corporation boasting about all their profits that they\u2019ve been making, and they continue to raise their prices,\u201d Donley told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cAnd then they have the nerve to go and tell people, \u2018Well, if you\u2019re struggling to feed your families, buy our products.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n WK Kellogg has remained resilient in a time of decreased consumer spending<\/a>, relying on cereal mainstays like Froot Loops and Corn Flakes to energize profits<\/a>. The company has benefited from price increases, seeing a fourth-quarter price\/mix increase<\/a> of 7.5%, despite a 10% drop in volume. Top brass Pilnick makes $1 million annually as a base salary, with an additional $4 million coming from incentive compensation, according to an SEC filing<\/a>. The cereal industry is generally going strong: General Mills<\/a> is projected to beat earnings estimates<\/a> ahead of its March 20 earnings report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seeing WK Kellogg reap the rewards of raising prices has incited plenty of online anger. Pilnick\u2019s LinkedIn<\/a> post following his CNBC interview was flooded with critical comments<\/a>, and TikTok has begun to organize a boycott of Kellogg\u2019s products for the second fiscal quarter starting April 1. The #boycottkelloggs tag has over 18.5 million views on the app, and the efforts have spurred the creation of letthemeatcereal.info, a website outlining the purpose and demands of the boycott, which include a 25% decrease in Kellogg\u2019s brand prices and the removal of \u201charmful chemicals\u201d from the products. The boycott includes products from both WK Kellogg and Kellanova, two independent companies that split from Kellogg Company<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n WK Kellogg and Kellanova did not respond to Fortune<\/em>\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n Donley is among several online creators taking the boycott in a novel direction, posting how-tos for homemade breakfast alternatives in support of the boycott, including Rice Crispies<\/a>, Cinnamon Toast Crunch<\/a>, and Cookie Crisp<\/a> (though the latter two are produced by General Mills, not WK Kellogg).\u00a0<\/p>\n As a mom trying to keep processed food out of her home, Donley began milling her own grains for home bakes about two years ago. It was part of a greater curiosity with the homestead movement, and an effort to \u201cto get back to [her] roots and where [her] food comes from.\u201d Her TikTok account, with over 38,000 followers, documents her lifestyle and recipes. For Donley, the decision to add a political bent to her videos and endorse the boycott was a natural progression. Making her food from scratch was a way to regain agency over where her food comes from.<\/p>\n \u201cWe as citizens and consumers have really lost control over everything,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re just kind of subjected to whatever these big corporations want us to be subjected to for them to make a better bottom line. People just want to take their power back.\u201d<\/p>\n Though word of the boycott has quickly spread online, analysts warn it may not have its intended effect.<\/p>\n While a noble action, boycotts have not always been effective in getting corporations to meet consumer demands, Tyson Browning, professor of operations management at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University, told Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBoycotts are a very blunt instrument, and when people have a grief with, say, a CEO, then choose to boycott an entire company, there\u2019s naturally a lot of collateral damage that they may or may not intend,\u201d Browning said.<\/p>\n Kellogg is certainly familiar with this effect. In 2021, workers from four Kellogg\u2019s cereal plants went on strike for three months after benefits and pay disputes<\/a> were not resolved at the bargaining table. Consumers organized a Kellogg\u2019s product boycott on the r\/antiwork subreddit<\/a> to support the workers. Though the boycotts may have put greater pressure on Kellogg to meet worker demands, Browning argued, the sudden drop off in sales could have pushed Kellogg to opt for a quick fix. The company laid off 1,400<\/a> of its striking workers.<\/p>\n While conservative boycotts of Bud Light and Target<\/a> saw both falter in sales, Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch InBev<\/a> grew revenue<\/a> last quarter after raising prices. Target has stumbled dramatically, but that\u2019s likely due to people cutting back on discretionary products, of which Target provides plenty, not boycotts<\/a>, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s more bad news for frustrating consumers, Saunders said: Prices aren\u2019t coming down anytime soon. The Consumer Price Index for final demand rose 0.6% last month<\/a>, an indication that inflation is still creeping up. The index for processed foods and feeds rose 0.3 percent. While prices aren\u2019t coming down, inflation is stabilizing, meaning buyers shouldn\u2019t expect to see drastic price hikes.<\/p>\n \u201cPrices will still remain reasonably high, although I think we\u2019re not going to see prices keep going up like they have done over the past couple of years,\u201d Saunder said. \u201cThat\u2019s sort of behind us, including for Kellogg\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as inflation levels out, there\u2019s other factors impacting the price of food, tying Kellogg\u2019s hands when it comes to lowering prices.<\/p>\n \u201cThe cost of transportation has gone up; the cost of labor has gone up,\u201d Saunders said. \u201cKellogg\u2019s has faced price increases for its own production, in the same way that other companies have faced price increases, and it\u2019s passed some of those increases across to consumers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Food companies are contending with labor shortages<\/a> forcing them to increase wages\u2014Chipotle<\/a> said they will increase the price of burritos<\/a> after the passage of a California law raising minimum wage to $20. Supply shortages, such as for sugar and cocoa<\/a>, will force price increases for Oreos and Ritz, and grocery stores may want to nudge customers towards their own cheaper private brands<\/a> by keeping name brand costs higher.<\/p>\n\u2018Boycotts are a very blunt instrument\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n