No ill effects on sales despite boycott: Kellogg CEO

NEW YORK — Kellogg says it saw no “discernible” effect from an online boycott spurred by its decision to pull ads from a website formerly run by one of President Donald Trump’s top aides.

CEO John Bryant said it’s difficult to gauge the impact of such consumer actions given the volume of its sales, but that the company did not see any effect it could attribute to the boycott. Kellogg had announced its decision in late November to pull ads from Breitbart.com, which has been criticized for featuring racist, sexist and antiSemitic content.

The website subsequently called for a boycott of the company.

At the time, Kellogg had said it works with media buying partners to ensure its ads don’t appear on sites that aren’t “aligned with our values.” The company and others have said such ad placement can come about because of automated ad buying programs.

“We had no intention of getting into a political discussion,” Bryant said Thursday.

Paul Norman, president of Kellogg North America, also said Thursday that the company generally does not advertise on news sites because there is a chance an ad can end up next to a negative story.

Kellogg reported sales of $3.1 billion (all figures US) in the final three months of 2016, slightly better than expected revenue of $3.07 billion. The company reported a loss of $53 million, or 15 cents per share, as it booked charges for restructuring and deconsolidating its Venezuela business.