How NOT to advertise your bakery... a story!
So there's a bakery in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina called CRUMB - they are a custom bakery, no actual store, just by order only. A friend of mine recently saw that they decided to use a ridiculous and fat-insensitive slogan, and decided to do something about it...
The slogan in question was "So good it makes fat people cry!"
umm... ok? First of all, it's a dumb slogan. What exactly does it mean, exactly? No, really? Why are they crying? Because it goes against their diets? Because they can't have any? Or because it's so good they burst into tears? If that latter is the case, why would that only be happening to fatties? Wouldn't skinny people burst into tears also, or do they not appreciate fine baked goods like we do? Also, why make a slogan that would possibly alienate fat people when, judging by the slogan itself, they are under the impression that fat people eat tons of cupcakes (and apparently burst into tears for some reason) - wouldn't that be bad business sense? Why drive away all us food-inhaling fatties with dollars to spend on overpriced cupcakes with edgy names like the "Miso Horny"?
But I digress.
So my friend sees this slogan and thinks "Hey, that's kind of offensive!" and decides to tell them so. She politely points out that their slogan was in poor taste and seems to make fun of fat people and how that's Not Okay. She didn't call them names, she didn't say mean things, she expressed no hatred or animosity, just letting them know that their supposedly edgy slogan is toeing the offensive line. So how did they respond? With the following:
"We offend everybody equally. You are the one with hate in your heart not us. Since we are fortunate enough to live in America you can do whatever you want."
Seriously??? This is a sweet lady, who I've never heard utter a word of hatred about anybody. Utterly shocked at their lack of decency, common sense, politeness and BASIC customer service skills, she sets up a hasty Facebook page urging folks to boycott the bakery until they change their slogan. At this time I joined her boycott page (even though I now live way too far away from NC to even contemplate giving this business my patronage) and pulled up the offending bakery's website. There it was, in an artsy-fartsy photo, a little plaque coming out of a cake with the dumb slogan.
By the end of the day, that photo had been replaced and the slogan mysteriously disappeared from the site. Interesting! My friend, thinking her small act of defiance against a stupid fatty-based slogan had actually worked, was about to take down the boycott page when we discovered just what the bakery owners had been doing all day. Apparently they took the opportunity to go on Twitter and yak about the "fat cunt" that was ruining their day. Yeah, soooo classy! That particularly-worded Tweet has since been removed, though they're still managing to tweet about being "apocalyptic with rage" and that "today has confirmed my hatred for most of the human race." Nice. Well said, dickwad.
Needless to say, the boycott page did not get taken down. My friend, and subsequently I, commented on the bakery's own Facebook page about their juvenile antics and lack of class. They're a startup business, where word-of-mouth support is crucial. I know this probably affects very few of you out there in Fatshionista-land, but if you live in that area and happened to think of ordering something from this bakery, I humbly ask that you think twice. Heck, the initial slogan wasn't ZOMGOFFENSIVEFATTIEHULKSMASH!, it's just their reaction to the suggestion was so crude... I know I wouldn't want to buy from them. I'll make my own damn cupcakes.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this little story with y'all to show that you CAN successfully fight back against this kind of prejudiced BS!
The slogan in question was "So good it makes fat people cry!"
umm... ok? First of all, it's a dumb slogan. What exactly does it mean, exactly? No, really? Why are they crying? Because it goes against their diets? Because they can't have any? Or because it's so good they burst into tears? If that latter is the case, why would that only be happening to fatties? Wouldn't skinny people burst into tears also, or do they not appreciate fine baked goods like we do? Also, why make a slogan that would possibly alienate fat people when, judging by the slogan itself, they are under the impression that fat people eat tons of cupcakes (and apparently burst into tears for some reason) - wouldn't that be bad business sense? Why drive away all us food-inhaling fatties with dollars to spend on overpriced cupcakes with edgy names like the "Miso Horny"?
But I digress.
So my friend sees this slogan and thinks "Hey, that's kind of offensive!" and decides to tell them so. She politely points out that their slogan was in poor taste and seems to make fun of fat people and how that's Not Okay. She didn't call them names, she didn't say mean things, she expressed no hatred or animosity, just letting them know that their supposedly edgy slogan is toeing the offensive line. So how did they respond? With the following:
"We offend everybody equally. You are the one with hate in your heart not us. Since we are fortunate enough to live in America you can do whatever you want."
Seriously??? This is a sweet lady, who I've never heard utter a word of hatred about anybody. Utterly shocked at their lack of decency, common sense, politeness and BASIC customer service skills, she sets up a hasty Facebook page urging folks to boycott the bakery until they change their slogan. At this time I joined her boycott page (even though I now live way too far away from NC to even contemplate giving this business my patronage) and pulled up the offending bakery's website. There it was, in an artsy-fartsy photo, a little plaque coming out of a cake with the dumb slogan.
By the end of the day, that photo had been replaced and the slogan mysteriously disappeared from the site. Interesting! My friend, thinking her small act of defiance against a stupid fatty-based slogan had actually worked, was about to take down the boycott page when we discovered just what the bakery owners had been doing all day. Apparently they took the opportunity to go on Twitter and yak about the "fat cunt" that was ruining their day. Yeah, soooo classy! That particularly-worded Tweet has since been removed, though they're still managing to tweet about being "apocalyptic with rage" and that "today has confirmed my hatred for most of the human race." Nice. Well said, dickwad.
Needless to say, the boycott page did not get taken down. My friend, and subsequently I, commented on the bakery's own Facebook page about their juvenile antics and lack of class. They're a startup business, where word-of-mouth support is crucial. I know this probably affects very few of you out there in Fatshionista-land, but if you live in that area and happened to think of ordering something from this bakery, I humbly ask that you think twice. Heck, the initial slogan wasn't ZOMGOFFENSIVEFATTIEHULKSMASH!, it's just their reaction to the suggestion was so crude... I know I wouldn't want to buy from them. I'll make my own damn cupcakes.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this little story with y'all to show that you CAN successfully fight back against this kind of prejudiced BS!