There’s nothing like the holiday season to bring out the derp in managers of social media for businesses and corporations. Top contender for this Christmas’ competition has to be the “ginger bread shack house” photos from the Orient-Express’ posh Mount Nelson hotel in South Africa. Immediately after tweeting the pictures, there was an online backlash for the seeming insensitivity of making a ginger bread house modeled after the dilapidated hovel in which many of South Africa’s poor reside.
South African township ginger bread shack house..! http://t.co/Aqn3lkJZ1A
— Belmond Mount Nelson (@themountnelson) December 23, 2013
The hotel has since deleted the picture, but not before many caught a screencap:
Are those really little white garden gnomes outside the #gingerbreadshack ?! @themountnelson http://t.co/DKID9VvugU
— Ruth Hall (@RuthHallPLAAS) December 23, 2013
Here’s another view:
https://twitter.com/ELLE_EL1/statuses/415136500817604608
Aww look how cute shacks look when you make them out of gingerbread. Almost makes living in one worth it, right? @themountnelson
— ZA MEME (@za_meme) December 23, 2013
@Ochams_Razor @themountnelson Hmmm. It seems shack life is all the rage. It speaks volumes about how ignorant privilege is about poverty
— Coach Murray (@Murrayingram) December 23, 2013
@AfricasaCountry @azadessa @themountnelson That's shameful, not art. It's in really poor taste (excuse the pun).Very Marie Antoinette-esque.
— rah* (@yn_maybe) December 23, 2013
Don't know why people take offence. @themountnelson is the bastion of the colonial experience. The last British outpost @TOMolefe @tomtom_m
— Yanga Qinga (@Coach_Yanga) December 23, 2013
I lived across the road from @themountnelson and visited a few times. The colonial minstate is jus how they roll y'all @TOMolefe @tomtom_m
— Yanga Qinga (@Coach_Yanga) December 23, 2013
@artofkawaii Trading off the vestiges of a colonial legacy means you can't avoid celebrating white privilege. @themountnelson @ThatNicole
— Yanga Qinga (@Coach_Yanga) December 23, 2013
https://twitter.com/SiveMayiya/status/415335796141719552
1400 people have been left homeless by shack fires in CT. That's the reality of living in shacks not @themountnelson's #gingerbreadshack.
— IG: lindimlandu (@Mandlovu_) December 24, 2013
https://twitter.com/AlexandreLaudet/status/415365560382136320
@themountnelson @TOMolefe @tomtom_m naïve and dangerous. Maybe hire starving children to be ushers next time.
— Godfrey Johnson (@GodfreyJohnson) December 24, 2013
https://twitter.com/Boschwhacked/status/415174793244454912
After apologizing, the hotel tried to explain that the ginger bread shack was an attempt to raise awareness or something.
#gingerbreadhouse apology, it was a staff initiative to create it, not our intention to offend anyone. We have removed it from the hotel.
— Belmond Mount Nelson (@themountnelson) December 23, 2013
@TOMolefe @tomtom_m We support many township projects, and this partly to raise awareness with our international guest whom visit us.
— Belmond Mount Nelson (@themountnelson) December 23, 2013
@TOMolefe @tomtom_m Our apologies for offending you, our executive chef will posts his comments soon, there is an educational side to it.
— Belmond Mount Nelson (@themountnelson) December 23, 2013
Uh huh. Yeah, we’re totally buying that excuse — that’s why the photo was deleted. It was raising too much awareness!
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