Kellogg's has been forced to apologise after offering to exchange retweets for breakfasts for vulnerable children.
The cereal manufacturer posted “1RT=1 breakfast for a vulnerable child” this month as part of its Give a Child a Breakfast campaign.
The message was immediately attacked for cynically trying to squeeze advertising from starving children.
Some social media users suggested Kellogg’s was essentially holding hungry children hostage by depriving them of food unless the campaign was promoted.
One Tweeter under the handle @BotanyGeek replied: ‘Anyone else find this kinda creepy? Like sayin “Help us advertise or kids go hungry”.’
Another, @Hyper_Linda tweeted: ‘retweet @KelloggsUK OR ELSE kids will go hungry.’
Kellogg’s have since deleted the tweet and posted instead: “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.”
However some were still angry at the cereal giant, with @ The_No_Show replying “@KelloggsUK Not “wrong use of words”, you said exactly what you meant to say. It was just a lousy social marketing plan.”
