Cereal giant Kellogg’s moved to change the “gender biased” art on the back of its Nutri-Grain cereal after a little girl from Australia complained that only boys appeared on the box.
The cereal box initially featured three males on the back along with a message urging customers to get active.
“Fuel up with energy,” the message on the back of the box read, “and feel fuller with protein to kickstart the day.”
But eight-year-old Daliah Lee wondered why the box only featured active boys. Miss Lee wrote a letter to the cereal company asking why no girls appeared on the box.
“Dear Kellogg’s … This morning I noticed that on the back of the Nutri Grain [sic] box there are only pictures of boys doing something awesome. Why can’t girls be on the back?” Lee wrote in her letter according to Australia’s ABC.
“[I was] very disappointed! Because they used to be my favorite cereal brand and now they’ve backfired,” the girl added.
“It matters to me because I want girls and men and boys and women to believe they can do it because they see their kind can do it,” she said.
Perhaps to her surprise, the company responded.
“I’m sorry you did not like this particular product. We very much appreciate your feedback and your comments will be forwarded to our product development team,” said Nitin Raj, Kellogg’s Operations Manager, according to Fox News.
But it did not seem that the company intended to do anything about the box art. The little girl persisted, though, with more notes, and eventually, the company took her feedback to heart.
On Friday, the company made a new announcement.
“Hearing Daliah’s passion and, as a company that values diversity and inclusion, we’ve decided that we will update the pack imagery with images of both females and males … so that we can continue to inspire all Aussies no matter their gender,” Kellogg’s said in a statement.
Kellogg’s said it plans to roll out the new packaging by next year.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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