Krispy Kreme has issued an apology after it unintentionally used a racial slur in one of its video advertisements.
The doughnut company came under fire after featuring a series of advertisements in Australia encouraging customers to purchase the doughnuts for all sorts of major life milestones, according to the New York Post.
In some of the advertisements, doughnuts replace the “o” in words like “footy,” “movie,” and “hooray.”
“We never intended to offend any person or group,” Olivia Sutherland, the marketing director for Krispy Kreme said in a statement to Mumbrella.
In a now-deleted video advertisement, the “o” in “congrats” was replaced with a doughnut. An additional doughnut “o” appears, inadvertently forming the word “c**ngrats.”
The term “c**n” is a derogatory and offensive term used to refer to African-American people, according to the Mirror.
“We are sorry for the oversight and have removed all congratulations-related ads from the campaign,” Sutherland said in her statement.
Dr. Stephen Hagan told Mumbrella that it was “an absolute disgrace that in 2023, someone thinks they can come up with an… ad like that on a product that is very popular with people of colour.” Hagan was reportedly behind the movement of getting the Coon Cheese brand renamed to Cheer Cheese.
A spokesperson for Australia’s ad watchdog group, Ad Standards, told news.com.au that there have been no complaints over the advertisement, but if any were received the company would begin an investigation.
IJR reached out to Krispy Kreme for a statement but did not receive a response back by the time of publication.