Fact Check: Rice Krispies Mascot 'Pop' Was NOT Rebranded As Transgender Character

Fact Check

  • by: Lead Stories Staff
Fact Check: Rice Krispies Mascot 'Pop' Was NOT Rebranded As Transgender Character Didn't Happen

Did the Kellogg Company announce that Pop, one of the cartoon mascots for the company's Rice Krispies cereal, was rebranded as a transgender character? No, that's not true: A Kellogg spokesperson confirmed with Lead Stories that the claim is false. Also, a supposed screenshot of a CNN article that reported on the change does not show a real CNN article.

The claim appeared in an Instagram post on May 21, 2022. The post features what appears to be a screenshot of an article from CNN published on May 20, 2022, and titled "Kellogg's spokesperson announces Rice Krispie mascot 'Pop' is now a trans woman." The caption of the post reads:

Pop tho.... What's your thoughts...

This is how the post appeared on Instagram at the time of writing:

rice krispies IG post.png

(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Tue May 24 15:47:30 2022 UTC)

In an email sent to Lead Stories on May 24, 2022, Kris Bahner, a Kellogg spokesperson, told us:

We have made no changes to the Rice Krispies mascots, Snap Crackle and Pop.

The "screenshot" of the CNN "article" used in the Instagram post includes a byline featuring CNN journalists Helen Regan and Andrew Raine. Neither of the journalists' pages features the Rice Krispies story. Lead Stories searched CNN.com for "Kellogg's spokesperson announces Rice Krispie mascot 'Pop' is now a trans woman," "Kellogg's Rice Krispies" and "Kellogg's Pop." None of the results matched the "article" from the "screenshot" used in the Instagram post.

There is also a stylistic inconsistency in the headline of the "article." In the headline, "Pop" is referred to inside double quotation marks, but other CNN stories use single quotation marks for quotes, phrases or names in headlines. Screenshots of examples are included below:

single quotes cnn 1.png
(Source: CNN screenshot taken on Tue May 24 18:05:33 2022 UTC)

single quotes cnn 2.png
(Source: CNN screenshot taken on Tue May 24 18:07:50 2022 UTC)

single quotes cnn 3.png
(Source: CNN screenshot taken on Tue May 24 18:15:12 2022 UTC)

Google search results of "Kellogg's Rice Krispies Pop," "Rice Krispies Pop mascot" and "Rice Krispies Pop transgender," did not lead to any credible results that supported the claim.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion