A prominent U.K. bakery chain apologized publicly for sparking outrage among Christians by replacing baby Jesus with a bitten sausage roll in its Advent calendar.
Greggs, the largest bakery chain in the U.K., published an image of the three wise men kneeling before a manger filled with a sausage roll with a bite taken out of it to advertise their $32 advent calendar, leading to slew of outcries from various Christian groups and pro-christian figures, according to the New York Times. A spokesman from Greggs issued a public apology amidst the outrage, claiming that the chain never intended to be offensive.
“We’re really sorry to have caused any offence, this was never our intention,” Greggs’ spokesman said.
Out of interest do you think the people at Greggs understand that Jesus was Jewish and serving up a pork sausage roll in the manger is unbelievably inappropriate?
— Beth Rosenberg (@bethvaughan15) November 13, 2017
Simon Richards, CEO of the Freedom Association, called for a boycott of the chain in response to the photo and called the company “sick” and “anti-Christian,” while the U.K. Evangelical Alliance claimed that the photo was a hoax “manufacturing a scandal to sell baked goods,” according to Grub Street.
Daniel Webster, a spokesman for the U.K. EA, told the NYT that while he was not personally offended by the advert, he was grieved that its alleged goal of stirring up controversy to drive sales supplanted the focus on Jesus as the reason for the season, since the picture was just “processed outrage to sell processed food.”
Please boycott @GreggsOfficial to protest against its sick anti-Christian Advent Calendar. What cowards these people are: we all know that they would never dare insult other religions! They should donate every penny of their profits to @salvationarmyuk https://t.co/tAV7CRP7WM
— Simon Richards (@simplysimontfa) November 15, 2017
Greggs’ advent calendar goes on sale Monday.
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