#DumpKelloggs Trends On Twitter After Breitbart Ad Pull
#DumpKellogs is the No. 1 trending hashtag on Twitter at this writing after the cereal company pulled its advertising from the conservative, pro-Trump Breitbart News website.
Some social media users have applauded the move while many others are on board with the Breitbart-prompted boycott.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Kellogg’s decided to remove its advertising because Breitbart is an outlet that doesn’t align with its values.
The Times added, “The cereal company said that it advertises on a large number of websites, ‘so occasionally something is inadvertently missed. In this case, we learned from consumers that ads were placed on Breitbart.com and decided to discontinue advertising there.”
“The maker of Pop-Tarts, Apple Jacks and Rice Krispies came under fire for ads on the site after President-elect Donald Trump appointed former Breitbart chairman and white nationalist Steve Bannon as his chief strategist,” AdWeek claimed.
“People with knowledge of the matter say activists have been gathering screenshots of online ads at Breitbart.com and pressuring companies to pull them,” The Hollywood Reporter explained about progressive groups targeting the news organization founded by the late Andrew Breitbart.
The white nationalist claim has been aggressively disputed by Bannon colleagues.
Other advertisers that have recently dumped Breitbart — which the mainstream media often describes as far-right or alt-right — over alleged hate-speech concerns include Allstate and Earthlink, Bloomberg noted.
Breitbart officials say the Kellogg’s ad discontinuance will leave their bottom line unaffected.
“Insiders suspect that a significant portion of Breitbart’s revenue comes from advertising. While viewership is up, the website has come under fire for some of its more provocative headlines, which have been called racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic,” The Daily Caller observed in response to the #DumpKelloggs controversy.
This is the reason why America is sick & obese. Brands like GMO Kellogg's feeding Americans garbage even bugs won't eat. #DumpKelloggs pic.twitter.com/H0V3uza4uH
— Melissa Tate (@TheRightMelissa) December 1, 2016
In response, Breitbart has launched the #DumpKelloggs online petition for consumers to pledge to boycott the breakfast food maker, which states the following.
“Breitbart News is the largest platform for pro-family content anywhere on the Internet. We advocate for traditional American values, perhaps most important among them is freedom of speech. For Kellogg’s, an iconic American brand, to blacklist Breitbart News in order to placate left-wing totalitarians is a disgraceful act of cowardice. They insult our incredibly diverse staff and spit in the face of our 45,000,000 highly engaged, highly perceptive, highly loyal readers, many of whom are Kellogg’s customers…”
Whether there is any connection, Breitbart published an article today about Amnesty International accusing Kellogg’s of allegedly exploiting child labor overseas.
Parenthetically, as alluded to above, widely publicized accusations of racism have been leveled at former Breitbart boss Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign CEO who will follow him into the White House as chief advisor in the new administration as the Republican standard-bearer takes office on January 20.
Breitbart London editor in chief Raheem Kassam has a different take as he explained in a recent radio interview.
“I’ve worked for Steve for three years now…he flew out to London to hire me, a brown son of Muslim parents, to run his London bureau… we have just the most incredible and effortless diversity in Breitbart… these guys who set out to portray Steve Bannon as a white nationalist or a white supremacist, let me say this, if he’s a white supremacist, he’s the worst white supremacist in the world based on the diversity he’s put around him.”
I guess @KelloggsUS will not care about this… they're happier having the support of the kumbaya's ? #DumpKelloggs pic.twitter.com/qEeXxqO4iv
— David Wolf (@DavidWolf777) December 1, 2016
Hmm it was a tough decision but I think i've decided to choose Pop-Tarts, Pringles and Cheez-its over sexism and racism #dumpkellogg
— mr lean cuisine (@juiciestdroppop) November 30, 2016
In the month of October, the Breitbart portal received 19.2 unique, U.S.-based visitors “up from 12.9 million a year ago, according to ComScore Inc.,” The Hill detailed.
Do you think that the #DumpKelloggs effort on social media will cause the cereal maker to have second thoughts about yanking its advertising from Breitbart or will it reaffirm the corporation’s decision?
[Featured Image by John Raoux/AP Images]
