Local Restaurant Yanks Controversial T-shirt After Receiving Backlash Online

What was meant to be a funny t-shirt ended up getting more backlash than laughs for one local restaurant.

Response was swift on social media after a t-shirt design was published by Lafayette restaurant Bread & Circus Provisions. The t-shirt design seemingly aimed to mimic comments made by President-elect Donald Trump on a hot microphone during an Access Hollywood interview.

The t-shirt, available through the official Bread & Circus website, was released on December 21, but the announcement on Facebook was met with immediate backlash.

Joey Munn This marketing idea is not going to go well.

 

John Davis Ask your mom, sister and wife for feedback before you promote this shirt.

Bread & Circus responded to the backlash, informing those who had negative feedback that the women in their company found the t-shirt to be amusing.

Bread & Circus Provisions Half of our company is owned by a woman. She happens to be a mom, sister, wife & daughter too! Also, our management team is majority women. They all thought is was super funny. But we also get that some people may not like it. We respect your opinion.

Unfortunately, the response from Bread & Circus Provisions was met with more backlash.

Susan Gualtier maybe instead of "respecting people's opinions," you should try respecting women as human beings.

 

Cecile Walters Hebert Love your pizza; hate this sh*t you're trying to cash in on.

 

Maribel Dietz Very offensive. Saddened and surprised.

Though disappointed, most of the feedback was rational and some people even pointed out that while the shirt may not have been the best look, the food at Bread & Circus was on point.

Still, Bread & Circus Provisions stood by their t-shirt, continuing to explain their reasoning behind printing up the t-shirt.

Bread & Circus Provisions We're very sorry if anyone is offended by this. This shirt is not meant to be a political, social, ethical, moral, or any -al statement. It's just meant to be funny. We understand that not everyone likes it... We respect your opinion. We also see that many people do think its funny. After such a long, craptastical year, we just wanted to laugh. We hope some of you did. If not, maybe it fueled a good conversation or two. That's the beauty of satire & this country. Ain't America grand?!

Unfortunately, their lengthy explanation only further fanned the flames with their critics.

Susan Gualtier If you're laughing at a slogan connected to sexual assault, accompanied by a pretty disgusting visual of two hands grabbing what's clearly intended to be a vulva-shaped slice of pizza, then you have a serious problem and are perpetuating rape culture... and no, that is NOT what makes America grand.

 

André Broussard You can't divorce this disgusting phrase from the disgusting human being from whose disgusting political campaign it was birthed. This isn't funny. this isn't satirical. It is dismissive and in bad taste at best. Just take the post down and move on from it. You're only digging a deeper hole in trying to justify this.

 

Kristi Carnahan Satire, as a genre, is focused at showing the problems and pushing for an improvement in the state of society.

As such, this is not satire. Not even close. Satire is aimed at those in power, and not by belittling and demoralizing those being hurt.

Tasteless, and it cannot be normalized or accepted.

"Sorry not sorry" and "we found a couple of women who think it's OK (or at least aren't comfortable telling you they don't think it's OK), so we'll take it as if they speak for the entirety of the population" are not acceptable responses.

 

Julie Moran Hanks This shirt is not winning you any fans, correct? You know what would? Respecting your female customers enough to admit you made a mistake and apologizing by removing them from sale.

 

Emily Waterfield Words I now associate with this restaurant: Gross. Dismissive. Out of touch. It doesn't matter that "some people aren't offended" when so many others clearly are. There's lots of egregious things people do that some people aren't offended by. That doesn't make it right. I won't ever come here and if I ever come across someone actually wearing this stupid shirt I'll feel disgusted by them too.

Eventually, the feedback was enough to cause Bread & Circus to pull down the t-shirt and issue an official apology via their Facebook page.

This is not the first time a local brand saw backlash related to politics as just a few weeks ago, UL football players were seen on video (in a locker room, ironically) singing along to YG's 'F--- Donald Trump.'

As if the video itself wasn't enough to enrage Trump supporters, its detractors were infuriated when Coach Mark Hudspeth's statement on the issue also pointed out the hypocrisy of those who were upset given all the controversial things Trump has said before and during his presidential campaign.

I guess the main takeaway here is that if you own a business or a brand, it's probably a good idea to avoid politics—regardless of what your intentions may be.

With that said, I hear Bread & Circus does have amazing pizza and they are all good folks—so, if you can help it, don't let this get in the way of you trying it out.