The UK’s largest bakery chain GREGGS is in strife after it replaced Jesus with a sausage roll as part of its Christmas advertising.
The apparently humorous marketing stunt was done in the form of an advent calendar that promoted the baker’s tasty pastry treats each day in the lead up to Christmas.
Each door revealed a tear-off token that could be taken into Greggs’ shops and exchanged for items from the menu such as mince pies and cakes.
However, as you’d expect, a lot of people were none to happy that Jesus had been replaced in the manger by a sausage roll. Some even described it as anti-semitic to portray the son of God, a Jew, with a pork product.
And, as you’d expect, social media was their place to rage. “Out of interest do you think the people at Greggs understand that Jesus was Jewish and serving up a pork sausage roll in the manger is unbelievably inappropriate?” wrote one.
Another added: “I’m no prude, but equating Jesus, a Jew, to a sausage roll really is deeply offensive on all sorts of levels.”
Greggs has since apologised for any offence caused, however, a spokesperson for the baker issued this rather lukewarm retraction: Greggs: “Novelty advent calendars have been around for years, so we thought it was time to take the concept up a notch.”
