WK Kellogg Co (Kellogg's)

Rating Overview

WK Kellogg Co (Kellogg’s) is High Risk.

Kellogg’s is High Risk. The company yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. Kellogg’s embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	High Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	No Data

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

In 2016, Kellogg’s pulled all of its ads from Breitbart News, a conservative news network, along with a number of other companies (1)(2).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

WK Kellogg Co does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

America First Legal filed a letter with the EEOC requesting a civil rights investigation into Kellogg’s over discriminatory practices in hiring (1)(2). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (3).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

In 2021, Kellogg’s ran a partnership with GLAAD featuring “pride” cereal and Froot Loops offers access to an online DEI educational library with the purchase of a cereal box (1)(2)(3)(4). The company has corporately embraced critical race theory and similar ideologies and opposed North Carolina’s 2016 bathroom bill (5)(6). The company signed an open letter endorsing the Equality Act, a contentious proposal to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act by adding sexual orientation and so-called gender identity as protected categories. The legislation would, among other implications, grant biological men access to women-only spaces such as sports teams and public restrooms, and compel healthcare providers to deliver sex-denying healthcare (7). The company opposed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which would prohibit teaching gender identity and sexual orientation to kids in K-3rd grade (8). Kellogg’s opposed various state and local legislation intended to protect parental rights, girls’ sports, bathroom facilities, and gendered spaces (9)(10). The company scored a 95 out of 100 on the 2023-2024 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a political stakeholder group (11)(12). In 2019, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation launched “Expanding Equity”, an online platform to help transform companies “into more equitable places of opportunity” through various DEI initiatives (13). The company is a signatory of the Institutional Limited Partners Association’s Diversity in Action Initiative, committing itself to specific actions that advance DEI within the governance and policies of the organization and the private equity industry more broadly (14)(15)(16).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Kellogg provides a benefits package for employees that covers travel/lodging costs for an abortion and transgender medical procedures for covered employees and dependents, including children (1)(2)(3). The company also pledged $90 million to the Black Lives Matter movement and related causes (4)(5)(6). In 2021, Kellogg’s ran a partnership with GLAAD featuring “pride” cereal and boxes where customers could fill in their own pronouns; this partnership raised funds for GLAAD (7). The company is a corporate partner of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) (8). Kellogg’s is a silver partner of PFLAG, an LGBTQ+ activist group that promotes books for children with sexually explicit and gender fluid content and advocates against laws that inform parents of their child’s gender dysphoria or prevent unapproved transgender medical treatments for minors (9)(10)(11). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of Kellogg using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (12).