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Globally renowned bakery gets it wrong with Oscar Pistorius meme cookies
Internationally renowned Charly’s Bakery sparked outrage on Twitter today after it tweeted a picture showing a range of cookies based on Oscar Pistorius memes.
The Paralympic gold medalist and Olympic athlete is about to go on trial for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013. As social media, which played a massive role in coverage of Pistorius’ bail hearing, once again turns its attention to the case, the bakery took the opportunity to post a picture of the cookies.
The wording of the tweet suggests that it may well have been courting controversy with the image:
The backlash against the bakery, which bills its cakes as “mucking afazing”, was pretty intense:
So, @charlysbakery reaches a new low when it comes to Pistorius coverage. @Dariomilo are these litigous? pic.twitter.com/zPeX9wvkac
— Theresa Mallinson (@tcmallinson) February 25, 2014
WTF?!! “@charlysbakery: Not sure if these are in good taste, but they sure taste good. Our #OscarMedia Meme cookies pic.twitter.com/YykTQHzqUw”
— Thulane (@_TOOLZ_) February 25, 2014
Charly’s, which is the star of reality TV show Charly’s Cake Angels, then apologised:
We seriously got it wrong with the #OscarMedia Meme cookies & we are hanging our collective heads in shame. #WeAlwaysRememberReeva
— Charly's Bakery (@charlysbakery) February 25, 2014
That however only seemed to make things worse:
@charlysbakery Take your hashtags, and insincere apology and come up with something better. Disgusting.
— Stephanie Be (@StephanieBe) February 25, 2014
@charlysbakery You should be ashamed of yourselves & I'd expect more than a lame apology & hashtag to make amends. Perhaps a large donation?
— Ken Borland (@KenBorland) February 25, 2014
@charlysbakery How long did it take to ice those bloody cookies? No. You do not always remember Reeva.
— Sam Woulidge (@SamWoulidge) February 25, 2014
@charlysbakery HOW DID YOU EVEN THINGS IT WAS OKAY TO BEGIN WITH?
— Snowflake (@Ah_nayP) February 25, 2014
@charlysbakery wow, what a BULLSHIT "apology"… cannot believe how stupid you ALL are..
— christopher maider (@chrismaider) February 25, 2014
@charlysbakery Nope, too late. You shouldn't have tweeted this in the first place.
— Martin Slabbert (@martinslabbert) February 25, 2014
@charlysbakery Still not good enough. You had intentions to sell that, therefore, make money from it. Distasteful. Disrespectful. Disgusting
— Petite Capetonian (@littletinajoy) February 25, 2014
The bakery later tried to explain the motivation behind making the cookies.
The #OscarMedia cookies were NOT for sale. Our intention was to stimulate debate as we always do with topical issues in the media
— Charly's Bakery (@charlysbakery) February 25, 2014
