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.
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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
