Kellogg’s CEO suggests eating cereal for dinner to fight food inflation

The CEO of Kellogg’s just had his ‘let them eat cake’ moment. This after the Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops boss has been making the rounds on cable news shows suggesting Americans serve up cereal for dinner to save on their soaring food budgets.

“If you think about the cost of cereal for a family versus what they might otherwise do, that’s going to be much more affordable,” CEO Gary Pilnick suggested of a Rice Krispies dinner while appearing on the business network CNBC.

“Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now,” Pilnick insisted in another interview, as reported by the New York Post. He even noted that bowl of cereal with milk and fresh fruit is under $1.

Pilnick’s pitch is actually part of Kellogg’s corporate strategy to boost soggy sales of its surgery staples as the price of some cereals swells to around $4-a-box amid rampant food inflation over the past two to three years.

As the New York Post notes, Kellogg’s “has been banking on a breakfast-for-dinner trend since 2022.” That’s when the company initially launched a campaign to get Americans to down a bowl of Corn Flakes for dinner.

The misguided marketing push touted the tagline “give chicken the night off,” the Post reports.

Turns out the strategy is all wet, producing a big backlash on social media. In fact, the episode is somewhat reminiscent of Marie Antoinette’s tone-deaf refrain to the starving French people: “Let them eat cake.”

In 2024, Americans have reason to be restless about food prices.

Food-at-home prices increased another 5% last year compared to 2022. The U.S Dept. of Agriculture estimated Americans were already shelling out 11.4% of their disposable incomes just to feed their families in 2022, the Post notes.

Overall, the rate of retail food price inflation is double the historical average of the previous two decades, showing little signs of abating, the USDA said.

The Kellogg’s suggestion of eating cereal for dinner to fight the fierce price squeeze at the grocery store has ignited something of a nasty food fight on social media. The Post points to one disgruntled diner who posted this on Instrgram: “Each the rich instead… Hearing wealthy folks put a marketing spin on poverty is wild.”

All this, as Pilnick pocketed a $1 million base salary and more than $4 million in incentive compensation in 2023, the Post reported.