Fact Check: Is Kellogg’s Rice Krispies mascot a transgender woman?

Over the past week, an image of a CNN headline about Kellogg's Rice Krispies mascot has been making the rounds on various social media platforms. The headline claims that the cereal brand announced that one of their three elf mascots, 'Pop', is now a transgender woman.

As per the screenshot, the date of publishing the article was Friday, May 20, and the image began circulating widely the same day.

The headline of the alleged CNN article read:

“Kellogg’s spokesperson announces Rice Krispie (sic) mascot ‘Pop’ is now a trans woman.”

This fact-check article investigates the credibility of this claim.

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Did Kellogg's Rice Krispies announce a trans woman mascot?

The image was reposted multiple times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This one tweet by user @tinyweinerbabe appears to be the first time the contentious headline was posted on social media on May 20.

The image showed 'Pop' pictured with a purple ponytail, rosier cheeks than usual, and a few inky strokes for eyelashes. It created quite a stir, with several people dismayed and enraged at the alleged change.

The tweet caption accompanying the screenshot, "the woke mob strikes again", already set the tone for the thousands of replies under it, eliciting more negative responses than positive.

A few of the replies pledged to never buy Rice Krispies again, opting for their competitor 'Crispy Rice'. Another snarkily asked if it was "June already", taking a dig at several corporates' penchant for capitalizing on the LGBTQIA+ community during Pride Month.

However, all this anger is futile since the screenshot was doctored. A quick search on CNN's website with the keywords from the alleged headline did not pull up any relevant results, thus proving that CNN never published such an article.

This was also confirmed by Emily Kuhn, Senior Director of Communications at CNN Digital Worldwide.

In an email to The Associated Press, Kuhn claimed that the image was fabricated and that no such story had been published by the cable news network. The story was not published by any other media outlet either.

Kellogg's Rice Krispies itself also did not make any such announcement, as verified by a review of their website.

A spokesperson from the cereal brand, Kris Bahner, made a press statement to various media organizations refuting this false claim, saying:

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

While some people reposted the digitally altered image in jest, the majority were taken in by the claim and circulated it in earnest, adding their own takes on the purported gender identity of the Rice Krispies mascot.

A keen eye would have caught the misspelling of the brand's trademark cereal as 'Rice Krispie', instead of 'Rice Krispies' - an indication that the headline was doctored.

While the identity of the original person behind this prank is unknown, Snopes reported that the fabricated headline first appeared on the /pol/ section of 4chan. This forum is notorious for being a cesspool of bigoted, far-right memes. It then made its way to AR15.com, which is also a right-wing forum.