Cheerios Has Responded To John Oliver’s Challenge With A Counter-Challenge That Puts The HBO Host In An Interesting Position

During Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver capped off a rant about how boring breakfast cereals have become by daring Cheerios to spice up its Twitter account by adding some profanity to the mix. If the circular cereal beloved by toddlers everywhere actually followed through by tweeting “F*ck you,” Oliver promised to donate $25,000 to a charity of the cereal brand’s choice. He even threw in a promise to double that amount if the account hurled the F-bomb at a “random, non-famous user.” And just to make it official, the Last Week Tonight Twitter account tagged Cheerios in case the company missed the late night segment.

— Last Week Tonight (@LastWeekTonight) May 31, 2021

Well, Cheerios saw it, and the cereal brand has responded with a challenge of its own, only this one is a little more wholesome. The response also puts Oliver in a tight spot because right out of the gate, Cheerios just went ahead and donated $50,000 to No Kid Hungry. It then promised to donate another $50,000 if Oliver or the Last Week Tonight account tweets a Cheerios slogan. So now Oliver has to choose between posting some corny corporate-speak to help a brand look good or, like, not assuring $50,000 goes to charity. It’s like the boat scene in The Dark Knight but with massively lower stakes.

You know we’re a family brand so we can’t drop the F Bomb. We’ll donate $50,000 to @nokidhungry. We’ll also donate $50,000 to the charity of your choice if you tweet, “Families make good go round.”