A bar has faced severe backlash after posting an offensive meme about missing teenager Jay Slater, prompting apologetic managers to donate a substantial amount to the search fund.
Bees Knees in Accrington, near Jay’s hometown of Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, drew criticism for sharing the post related to the search for 19-year-old Jay, who disappeared in Tenerife last month. Jay, an apprentice bricklayer, was on holiday with friends when he vanished while trying to walk back to his accommodation after spending time with two other Brits in the mountain village of Masca.
The bar sparked outrage by posting an image on its Facebook page showing Jay alongside a picture of a football with the caption, “both not coming home,” referring to England’s performance in the Euros. The post was condemned as “disgusting,” leading the bar’s managers to delete it and describe it as “highly sensitive” and “deeply offensive.”
Rachel Hargreaves, mother of Jay’s best friend Brad Hargreaves, was among those who criticised the bar, expressing disbelief at “how cruel some people really are.” “Jay’s hometown he is a customer in the bar too and they posted (that) in error apparently,” Rachel wrote. She found the joke “sickening,” stating, “How can anyone even share stuff like that, very disgusting and very disrespectful.”
On Monday, Bees Knees issued an apology to its customers, explaining that an outsourced social media company was responsible for the post. The bar has since donated £1,000 to the GoFundMe page set up to aid the search for Jay, which appears to be the largest donation yet.
In a contrite apology on Monday, Bees Knees stated: “This morning a conversation between Bees Knees Directors and Affordable Social has taken place in which we have decided to terminate our contract with immediate effect, after not receiving an adequate explanation into how this happened. Affordable Social were challenged three months ago to improve our social media pages via light-hearted humour, good content and sports talk.
“The post that made it onto the page was neither one of the above and was highly insensitive and deeply offensive. As a business, we are utterly gobsmacked that this has happened and how somebody could find good humour in a missing boy. I can’t stress enough nobody within the pub company has posted this status, some of which are receiving threatening messages which is completely unacceptable.
“As a company, we are East Lancashire based with our head office in Blackburn, we fully understand the impact this news about Jay has had on the area. We all have our fingers crossed for his safe return to the UK. We however fully appreciate the damage that has been done and nothing can change this however we will make a donation to the family fund of £1000 to assist the search for Jay.”
A screengrab shared by the bar included a comment from Affordable Social stating: “This morning, an employee posted something that does not reflect our brand standards or our client Bees Knees Accrington and has caused offence [sic] to others and upset to those involved. We are deeply distressed by the post, which was removed minutes after being posted. The employee responsible for this post no longer works for Affordable Social. We sincerely apologize [sic] to everyone affected by this incident.” The Mirror has attempted to contact Affordable Social separately.
