In Watkinsville, Georgia, about ten miles outside of Athens, a local steakhouse, Chops & Hops, debuted a new steak and bleu cheese sandwich to mix reviews. Not because patrons didn't enjoy the sandwich but because of the way in which the steakhouse decided to advertise their menu addition. On Saturday, Chops & Hops published a picture to their Facebook of their new sandwich, "Black and Blue,” accompanied by this quote:
“@chrisbrown @rihanna and us teamed up for a [sic] award winning celebrity sandwich. Put your hands on this Caribbean black and bleu sandwich. Chris Brown won’t beat you up for eating this unless your name starts with a R and ends with A.”
Using the quote as a reference it is safe to assume that Chops & Hops took marketing inspiration from the 2009 beating of Rihanna by Chris Brown to create their new dish. The restaurant does have a history of naming menu items for popular celebrities but their marketing strategy was tasteless and insensitive toward those affected by domestic violence, no matter their celebrity status.
After spreading through Facebook and Twitter like a wild fire Chops & Hops decided to pull the sandwich and has pledged to donate six times the amount of the profits made off of initial sales of the sandwich to Project Safe Team 6, a non-profit organization that fights against domestic violence. One comment in response to the sandwiches description feels that the name is a perfect for a steak sandwich but “if you plan on bringing it back I might suggest you name it after an MMA fighter or hockey player…anything except a woman who was beaten.”
We concur.
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