There’s a saying in social media-savvy circles: Don’t say anything on Facebook that you wouldn’t say in skywriting.
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There’s also a saying in business: The customer is always right.
The Mercury wonders whether Pokolbin restaurateur Mark Clews had heard either of these sage pieces of advice leading up to his very public social media attack on a customer.
Mr Clews took to restaurant Tuk Tuk Hunter Valley’s Facebook page to mock a vegan diner who visited the restaurant wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt. The diner spotted the post, identified herself and responded.
Mr Clews went on, via the restaurant’s Facebook site, to use a very broad brush to slap vegan diners with extremely unflattering stereotypes.
He characterised them as Nazi-like in their convictions and stated that their veganism was “inspired by some tragic childhood event, or a divorce, or a car accident, or some crap”.
He observed that they were “easy to mess with” because they lacked “physical strength” due to the absence of red meat in their diet.
Predictably, these outrageous and offensive remarks attracted the ire of vegetarians, vegans and members of the community at large.
Much fallout ensued, including reported death threats and abusive phone calls, but Mr Clews appeared unapologetic in a later posting on the Tuk Tuk Hunter Valley Facebook page.
“We have ruffled feathers with our outspoken irreverence, for this we make ZERO apology…” he observed, and wound up by proclaiming “…the whingers and complainers can eat elsewhere.”
Some may claim there is no such thing as bad publicity. However, the fact the Tuk Tuk Hunter Valley Facebook posts have been deleted suggest that Mr Clews may now be thinking otherwise.
Time will tell as diners cast votes with their feet and their wallets.
