By the way folks at the American Family Association are talking, you’d think Kellogg’s had committed some grave crime against humanity.
“Shame on Kellogg’s!” one of the hate group’s supporters said. “They will pay for this!”
“Criminal is what it is!” another person added.
The cereal giant is under attack for using their family friendly mascot Tony the Tiger in a pro-gay advertisement.
“Why?!” someone else said. “Why use a cartoon tiger?”
“Camel got heat for ‘marketing cigarettes to children’ because of their cartoon camel,” yet another person commented. “Is it just me, or is Tony now marketing a sexual lifestyle to children?”
Earlier this year, the company sponsored Atlanta Pride, and released an ad featuring Tony the Tiger standing proudly beside a message celebrating acceptance and respect of the gay community.
“At Kellogg, we’re an evolving culture that respects and accepts employees’ sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression so that all employees can be authentic and fully engaged,” the ad read.
“Tony the Tiger needs to be worrying about kid nutrition, not adult sex lives,” someone said. “This is pervy.”
“What they’ve done to tony is thoroughly disgusting,” someone else added. “They won’t stop until every comic character in the world is a homosexual. Criminal is what it is. So sad.”
“Sad, sad,” another person agreed.
Of course, this is not the first time a company has been targeted by AFA for supporting equality. In 2011, the hate group boycotted The Home Depot for their “corporate endorsement” of gay pride, gathering more than 470,000 signatures on a petition demanding it quit supporting the gays. The company responded by thanking AFA for the free publicity then basically telling them to buzz off.
We’ve just gotta say, we think what Kellogg’s did is grrreat!
Related stories:
AFA’s Tim Wildmon Calls America “The Twilight Zone” For Supporting Gay Equality
The Home Depot Doesn’t Care About The AFA’s Dumb Anti-Gay Petition
Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
blondeboyz
Too bad, so sad. If a cartoon character can be inclusive of ALL people, including LGBT who are born gay (despite your “expert” opinion to the contrary), then why not you? You are beating a dead horse. Give it up already and move along. Nothing to see here.
Desert Boy
The Mississippi-based American Family Association is sick. Their chief spokesman, Bryan Fischer, is obsessed with ‘teh gays’.
Dakotahgeo
I would admonish the AFA (American Fucked ASSociation) to take an airborne fornication to NeverNeverland! Can you imagine a society whose only colors are black and white?? Pretty stinkin’ booorrring!
mcflyer54
I’m already purchasing Nabisco Honey Grahams monthly to include with my food bank donation. Guess I’ll now be adding a dozen boxes of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes. Funny isn’t it how these groups always want to complain about companies that support equality but do so while using their PCs, Macs, tablets. cellphones, etc. that are ALL produced by companies that support equality. There is no way to get on the internet without supporting a company that totally supports equality. Those companies design, build, and/or sell equipment or design and sell the browsers and software that allows access. So if these groups were honest they would boycott all of the techno industry, even if it no longer allowed them to pander to their base and beg for donations.
Leonard Woodrow
We must give all our support to companies that back gay equality, and boycott those that don’t.
Shop wisely!
Queertyreader2
Gay and Lesbian Buying Power is Fast Approaching $800 Billion. This report includes an assessment of strategic trends shaping the gay and lesbian market and identifies opportunities available to marketers interested in reaching out to gay and lesbian consumers.
Gay and lesbian consumers are more optimistic than many Americans about the overall direction of the country, its future economic growth, the job market and their own personal financial condition, according to survey results published in “Gay and Lesbian Market in the U.S.: Trends and Opportunities in the LGBT Community” by market research publisher Packaged Facts. Armed with this confidence and $743 billion in estimated 2010 buying power, the U.S. population of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults is expected to amp up discretionary spending on products and services in the wake of the recession and emerging recovery.
Something tells me that with that kind of buying power, Kellogg or Home Depot would be CRAZY to listen to listen to the American Family Association. In this economy “NO” business can afford to thumb their nose at $800 Billion in LGBT PRIDE GREEN BACKS! LOL
RIGay
AFA…. Therrrrrre in-GRATE!!!!
Chris
They’re selling high-fructose corn syrup wrapped in sugary frosty coating. And the best the religious right can do is to complain about its message of inclusiveness. ….. My hat’s off to the Kellogg’s marketing people; they’ve got people’s attention diverted from the quality of their diets.
Kaye Crawford
The “Kellogg should be worried about kid nutrition, not adult sex lives” comment makes me understand why, if any of “their” kids are ‘gay’ they may be afraid to be open and honest. None of my ‘straight’ grandkids want to be “gay,” but have no problem with their friends who are. So, what are ‘they’ really worried about? Are ‘they’ unaware of what kids talk about to each other? Certainly not nutrition. Lack of education and awareness leads to ignorance of the issue.
mezzacanadese
I resent the way these people use the word “family” in their name, as though their type of family is the only type. Today families do not all consist of a mother, a father, and their straight children. There are families with two daddies or two mommies, and there are families, like mine, with a gay son and a lesbian daughter, both of which I am very proud. One day these prejudiced people will be very much in the minority, and finding that the ship has sailed without them. Kudos to Kellogg. I plan to buy more of their products.
Dakotahgeo
You must realize, I’m sure, that these ultra religious right wing twits are years behind society regarding intelligence and information! Their children have learned more from their friends for years than they ever will from their parents or right wing religious destructive teachers/pastors. We really have nothing to fear in the future. The die is cast!
SteveDenver
I guess AFA missed the beak on Toucan Sam!
Dakotahgeo
I just visited the grocery store, looked for said product, and saw nothing that looked like the above advert. Is this a new advert scene??
Mark Jenkins
Kellogg’s is a little out of my price range these days- but I’m thankful they’re supporting us! It’s time to splurge- I’m off to buy some Fruit Loops! (pun intended). You’ll never change these idiots’ beliefs. Just enjoy irritating them whenever you can. Eventually they’ll all drop dead from lack of blood flow- after all- how long can you live without a heart?
NoCagada
EH…It’s all about a bunch of FLAKES!
NJjoe
AFA is a comical little group aren’t they?
1EqualityUSA
AFA…cereal killers
jamal49
It is so sad that the sick, depraved, delusional, spiritually-decadent, mentally-deranged evangelical effluvia that corrupt and contaminate our national dialogue about important issues of the day continue their twisted obsession over what is but a small aspect of gay men’s or women’s lives: their sexuality. What such fundamentalist filth cannot perceive is the humanity of gay people, which is what Kellogg’s is celebrating and giving recognition to.
gaym50ish
Kinda reminds us of Jerry Falwell and the flap over the “gay teletubbies” — as if a cartoon character could be gay.