Kellogg in trouble over "distasteful tweet"
The Kellogg UK Twitter account tweeted “1 RT = 1 breakfast for a vulnerable child” on Saturday as part of the company’s Give a Child a Breakfast campaign. The remark was then swiftly deleted and followed by two apology tweets as the online response took a turn for the worse.
Clean up job
On Sunday – after a backlash from the social media community – the company deleted its initial post and issued its first apology:
We want to apologise for the recent tweet, wrong use of words. It's deleted. We give funding to school breakfast clubs in vulnerable areas.
— Kellogg's UK (@KelloggsUK) November 10, 2013
Yesterday evening the company sent out a second apology for the comment:
We’d like to sincerely apologise for our distasteful tweet yesterday. We accept full responsibility for any offence we have caused.
— Kellogg's UK (@KelloggsUK) November 11, 2013
Whilst the orginal tweet can no longer be seen, Kellogg UK’s Twitter account is now littered with responses from disgruntled Twitter users:
@VividRicky Hi Vivid, the tweet was an error. You can find the full info here http://t.co/AN44H4cy9N. £400k has been donated school clubs.
— Kellogg's UK (@KelloggsUK) November 11, 2013
In response to one individual’s criticism, Kellogg said that the retweeting is just one “small part” of the campaign. This retweet proposition is in a pink box at the top of each page of the campaign’s official website where the company says: “Together we can donate 2 MILLION breakfasts to children in need. To help, simply Share, Tweet, Watch or Buy a special pack of Kellogg’s.”
“Lousy social marketing plan”
Some tweeters criticised Kellogg's working of the issue into a marketing ploy. Under the handle @BotanyGeek, one user asked: "Anyone else find this kinda creepy? Like sayin “Help us advertise or kids go hungry”. @Hyper_Linda tweeted: "retweet @KelloggsUK OR ELSE kids will go hungry.’’
Others found the company’s apology lacking:
.@KelloggsUK Not "wrong use of words", you said exactly what you meant to say. It was just a lousy social marketing plan.
— The_No_Show (@The_No_Show) November 10, 2013
.@KelloggsUK I think your apology would sound more convincing if you just admitted that you were wrong as opposed to blaming poor English..
— Helen Partridge (@gingerfury) November 10, 2013
The programme behind the Tweet blunder
The Give a Child a Breakfast is part of Kellogg’s ongoing Breakfast for Better Days initiative. The company says it has helped establish and support over 1,000 breakfast clubs in the last ten years through training and offering grants to schools.
The cereal giant has set itself a donation target of 15 million servings of breakfasts and snacks by 2016.
“In this way Kellogg’s is helping to tackle the problem of child hunger by providing the fuel they need to learn,” says the campaign’s website.
Kellogg had not responded to our request for further comment by the time of publication.
