Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Whole Foods denies writing gay slur on cake countersues pastor

On the Internet, not everything is as it seems.

On Monday, Kaplan Law Firm uploaded a YouTube video that showed Jordan Brown, an openly gay Texas pastor, accusing Whole Foods of writing an offensive word on a cake he had purchased.

In the video—which was shot on April 14—Brown shows off the seemingly unopened box and cake, which has “Love Wins” written across the top accompanied by the derogatory term:

On Tuesday, Brown tweeted a picture of the cake:

Whole Foods immediately disputed the claim and, after investigating, released an updated statement that said it has a policy prohibiting bakery orders with offensive language or images:

Our bakery team member wrote “Love Wins” at the top of the cake, which was visible to Mr. Brown through the clear portion of the packaging. That’s exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store. Whole Foods Market has a strict policy that prohibits team members from accepting or designing bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive.

Whole Foods also uploaded surveillance footage to YouTube, which shows its UPC label on top of the cake’s box—not on the side, as is featured in Brown’s video:

The social media team managing Whole Foods’ corporate Twitter account as well as the team behind the Austin Whole Foods account spent Tuesday responding to consumers:

However, many social media users asserted that the claim was obviously false, pointing out discrepancies and criticizing Brown:

In its statement, Whole Foods said it intends to “take legal action against both Mr. Brown and his attorney” and closed with the following message:

We stand behind our bakery team member, who is part of the LGBTQ community, and we appreciate the team members and shoppers who recognize that this claim is completely false and directly contradicts Whole Foods Market’s inclusive culture, which celebrates diversity.

My Statesman confirmed that Whole Foods had filed a lawsuit seeking $100,000 in damages:

In a countersuit filed in state district court in Travis County, Whole Foods says Brown “intentionally, knowingly and falsely accused Whole Foods and its employees of writing the homophobic slur… on a custom made cake that he ordered from WFM’s Lamar Store in Austin…”

The suit denies those claims and accuses Brown of acting “with malice, and he has damaged the reputation and business of WFM.”

Brown hasn’t been active on Twitter since Tuesday’s tweet about his press conference:

This bid for attention reminds brand managers that it’s necessary to be vigilant online. It also serves as a cautionary tale to those craving their own 15 minutes in the spotlight.

YouTube commentator Matt Jarbo, who said he used to teach social media to Hollywood entertainers, offered the following insights in a recent video:

One of the key things I was always asked was, ‘How do I make something go viral?’ And I always told [my clients], 'You can’t. You really can’t. There’s no way to predict what is going to get picked up by the media or picked up by social media or your friends or anything like that. There’s no way to really predict it. However, that’s not entirely true.

… It’s hard in entertainment to make something go viral. But when you move it out of entertainment and you head over into the manufactured outrage culture that we currently find ourselves in-that we have for many, many years-it’s not hard [to make something go viral] if you know the right strings to pull.

Though Brown obviously pulled the right strings in gaining widespread attention, that limelight could end up burning him.

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