There was no flunitrazepam in the Roofie Colada, but some customers were less than thrilled about the reference to the date rape drug.
Here’s a suggestion for anyone running a business: When naming a product, you might want to think about not cracking a date-rape joke, as — amazingly — not everyone is amused by references to non-consensual forced intercourse.
This is a lesson that is begrudgingly being learned by a gastropub in Staten Island, which recently came under fire for a drink called a “Roofie Colada.”
While the cocktail obviously does not include the powerful sedative Rohypnol (or its generic form, flunitrazepam) that has long been associated with predators who use it to spike victims’ drinks for illicit, illegal purposes, not everyone thought the name was amusing and let the restaurant know about it.
And when someone did complain about it on Facebook, the restaurant’s response wasn’t exactly one of empathy or apology. Instead, the eatery told the customer that the name was a reference to a bit from an episode of Family Guy, and then chastised the person for daring to register their complaint in a public forum.
“You could have said something to management or even sent us a private message about how you felt, wrote the restaurant, according to DNAinfo.com, “which we would have respectfully considered and maybe even changed.”
The restaurant eventually did pull the cocktail — some ridiculously sweet concoction involving coffee ice cream, doughnuts, Kahlua, vanilla vodka, caramel, chocolate syrup and whipped cream — and wrote an apology on Facebook.
“We treat our guests with the utmost respect and we are always open to feedback to make our restaurant a welcoming and comfortable place with a touch of humor and quirkiness,” reads the note. “We certainly did not intend to create an impression of reckless or negligent behavior by presenting the desert [sic] at question to our guests nor did we mean to make anyone feel uncomfortable or insulted. This desert [sic] name was simply a homage to an adult cartoon and there was no malice. We obviously do not support date rape or any sort of violence for that matter. We humbly apologize if we have offended anyone and we appreciate the community around us and its awareness toward the cause. Please be advised that the dessert is currently off the menu until it is appropriately renamed.”
The Staten Island eatery is just the latest to think it could crack a joke about sexual assault. Earlier this year, there was the Montreal restaurant with an outdoor sign that read (originally in French) “Pick-up line of the day: does this tissue smell like chloroform?”
In that case, the owners also pointed to Family Guy as their inspiration.
Just a few weeks earlier, a bar in Washington state used Urban Dictionary as its defense of a drink dubbed “Date Grape Kool-Aid,” which not only drew criticism from people who don’t find date rape all that hilarious and from Kraft, the maker of Kool-Aid, which was “appalled” at the drink and its unauthorized association with the family friendly beverage brand.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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