Overview
Amy’s Baking Company PR Scandal refers to an online feud that erupted between a restaurant owner in Arizona, United States and members of Reddit over an episode of Fox reality show Kitchen Nightmares aired in May 2013.
Background
As early as August 2010, Scottsdale, Arizona restaurant Amy’s Baking Company[2] began receiving poor reviews on Yelp,[3] which became the focal point of a local news story (shown below) about the restaurant and its online notoriety. That same month, owner Amy Bouzaglo responded to the backlashes on the Yelp page[12], calling an unhappy reviewer names including “loser” and “moron” under the guise of a five-star review.
Kitchen Nightmares
In 2013, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay went to the failing restaurant for an episode of his reality television show Kitchen Nightmares[1], which aired on May 10th, 2013. Owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo blamed their poor business on “haters” who were commenting on the restaurant’s Yelp page. Despite this, the owners were depicted reheating and serving prepared food and pocketing the wait staff’s tips. During the episode, Ramsay walked out, refusing to continue helping a client for the first time in the show’s history.[4]
Notable Developments
On Reddit
One day prior to the show’s national airing, a clip from the episode was shared on the /r/Videos subreddit[5], billed as the “craziest restaurant owners” in the show’s history. The post gained 7,784 upvotes, 2,966 points overall and nearly 1,000 comments before it was removed from the subreddit and commenting was disabled.
Facebook Meltdown
On May 13th, Redditor dojosnail submitted a screenshot of Amy’s Baking Company’s Facebook page (shown below) to /r/CringePics[6], claiming that the owners were having a public meltdown over criticism from the Kitchen Nightmares episode. The post gained more than 9,200 upvotes, 2,800 points overall and nearly 2,800 comments within 48 hours. On March 14th, two additional screenshots were submitted to /r/CringePics[7][8] by two different Redditors, each gaining more than 1,400 points each. That evening, all three posts were removed with most of their comments hidden.[9]
Hacking Claim
At around 6pm EST on May 14th, all of the offending posts had been removed from their Facebook page. The owners left a status update[13] claiming their website as well as all of their social media accounts had been hacked and they would be working with the FBI to track down the perpetrators.
Search Interest
External References
[1]Hulu – Kitchen Nightmares: Amy’s Baking Company
[2]Facebook – Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro
[3]Yelp – Amy’s Baking Company
[4]Eater – Watch Gordon Ramsay Give Up on Delusional Restaurant Owners in Kitchen Nightmares
[5]Reddit – /r/videos: Craziest Restaurant Owners in Kitchen Nightmares History (US). (Gordon Ramsay actually walks out for the first time)
[6]Reddit – /r/cringepics: So Amy’s Baking Company’s Facebook page is having a complete meltdown right now. They are actively commenting and replying to “haters”. The cringe is good
[7]Reddit – /r/cringepics: aaaaaand they’ve snapped.
[8]Reddit – /r/cringepics: Amy’s Baking Company tries to scare off redditors by posting this badly photoshopped screenshot.
[9]Reddit – /r/SubredditDrama: /r/cringepics mods delete everything related to Kitchen Nightmares, rendering an entire highly upvoted bestof thread obsolete.
[10]Tumblr – What Should We Call Social Media: When Amy’s Baking Co Had a Meltdown
[11]Buzzfeed – This Is The Most Epic Brand Meltdown On Facebook Ever
[12]Phoenix New Times – Ouch! Today’s Hard Lesson on Yelp
[13]Facebook – Amy’s Baking Company: Obviously our Facebook, YELP, Twitter and Website have been hacked.