Cereal giant Kellogg's has agreed to change its packing after an eight-year-old girl penned a letter to the company complaining about "sexist branding".
Dalilah Lee from Canberra noticed Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal packaging only seems to feature boys. In a letter dated May 8 posted to Facebook, Dalilah said she only ever saw boys "doing something awesome" on the packaging, and claimed it was "unfair".
In an online change.org petition, Dalilah said the Nutri-Grain packaging often featured boys doing "amazing things like surfing on the biggest waves or skateboarding upside down."
"Girls can do that as well as boys," she said.
"We don't have to think one is better than the other. We are both humans and we are the same if you look at it in a positive way. It is offending girls who can do amazing things too. It is stopping them from thinking that we are both equal."
The girl started the online petition - which has garnered 361 signatures - after Kellogg's responded to her letter saying her request would be "forwarded on to our product development team".
"They responded but said nothing about the problem. That's why I have made this petition to get you to help me change it," Dalilah said on the petition page.
It seems calling for public support worked in Dalilah's favour, because on Friday Kellogg's announced it would "update the back-of-pack imagery with images of both females and males," the company said in a statement.
"Hearing Daliah's passion and, as a company that values diversity and inclusion, we've decided that we will update the back-of-pack imagery with images of both females and males," the company said.
The changes will be rolled out in 2019.
Dalilah's mother, Annabelle, told Australian TV show The Sunday Project she is "incredibly proud" of her young daughter.
It comes as some universities in Australia have taken to banning any words with gendered meaning, such as "mankind" and "workmanship".
Newshub.
