Tiverton Restaurant Shares Anne Frank Oven Meme, Blames Employee, Says It Was Funny On Google, Finally Offers Mediocre Apology 

 

Over the weekend the Atlantic Sports Bar & Restaurant in Tiverton thought it would be wise to share their favorite Holocaust meme on Facebook.

Damn son, that’s brisk! I’ve laughed at some dark stuff, but even I know that some stuff you just don’t put on Facebook, especially if you’re logged into the business account. I’m not one for cancel culture normally, but if you’re dumb enough to share an Anne Frank oven meme on your company’s Facebook page in this day and age, then you get what you get.

Understandably they took a lot of crap for it, but instead of owning up to it and apologizing they doubled down, and played the “who the Hell is Anne Frank” card.

WBSM talk show host Jessica Machado saw the post on Facebook and called the restaurant asking for an explanation. She recounted what happened on Saturday’s edition of The Jessica Machado Show.

“I picked up the phone and I called, and said I wanted to speak with someone about a Facebook post,” Machado said. “The girl that answered said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, what post?’ I explained it and she said she didn’t get it, and I said, ‘OK, did you post it?’ and she said no. So I asked if I could talk to the person that did and she hung up on me.”

Machado called back again.

“I then spoke with the owner, who was equally as annoyed with me,” Machado said. “He doubled down on it and said he had just Googled it, he thought it was funny, and that they were very, very busy and it was very hot there, and that they didn’t have time to deal with my concerns or questions. He told me not to call them back and then, click, they hung up.”

The meme was later removed from Atlantic’s Facebook page. It is unclear if the restaurant staff removed the post, or if it was taken down by Facebook. WBSM called Atlantic on Saturday afternoon and asked to speak to the owner. We were told that he wasn’t in and the best way to contact him was via email. We sent an email inquiring about the meme and the decision both to post it and take it down. After receiving no response, we sent another email on Sunday afternoon.

ABC 6 News spoke to a worker who said that the employee that posted the meme was unaware that the person in the photo was Anne Frank and soon quickly deleted the picture when they realized who she was.

Pro tip – if one of your employees ever shares a Holocaust meme on the business account and the media calls you asking about it, just say you fired them and you’re really sorry. That’s all the mob wants. Whatever you do, DO NOT say that you Googled it, thought it was funny, and then blame your employee for not knowing who Anne Frank is. If they don’t know who Anne Frank is then it means you handed over access to your social media accounts to some kid who wore a helmet on the short bus. You’re either admitting that you’re really bad at business, or really bad at lying.

Like I said, I’m not a cancel culture mob guy over edgy jokes, but they were asking for this and won’t get any pity from me. They earned the negative reviews that have been flooding in since then, but some people have been defending their honor.

“Maybe the meme was a bit edgy.”

Yea, who knew the Holocaust was a sensitive issue?

I’m not debating that the person who posted it actually thinks it’s funny that Jews died, as I find that highly unlikely. But it says a lot about your professionalism and the kind of Mickey Mouse operation you’re running if the person you entrusted to run your social media accounts is posting memes like that.

What made me enjoy the cancelling and pile on even more was this review left in their defense:

So they hang Pride flags, have gender neutral bathrooms since “before it was trendy,” and seek out junkies to hire. OK good, now I can really dislike them! If this is true (which I doubt, because it sounds like this is a fake account trying to throw a bone to the mob in the hope that they’ll be spared) then I’m just gonna sit back and enjoy watching the people they tried to appease burn them to the ground.

Instead of apologizing the mystery employee who runs the page shared one of their only good reviews.

Another pro tip – if something like this happens don’t try to save face by sharing good reviews from plus sized goth chicks with blue hair. It’s almost as cringe as sharing an Ann Frank oven meme.

They did have some defenders.

I know there’s a lot of dumb people out there who don’t know anything about history, but Anne Frank is more recognizable in this country than George Washington. And a lot of us can take a joke Bruce. But the issue here is that they chose to use their business account to tell this particular joke, instead of doing it on 4 Chan like a normal incel.

The restaurant owner is Messias Dias.

A quick look at his personal page shows a whole bunch of edgy memes and a general theme of “f*** your feelings.” Not exactly someone you’d think would brag about having a gender neutral bathroom. I highly doubt there’s an employee who made this post, and it’s probably just him trying to pass the buck onto an anonymous employee. According to people we spoke with this has made employees upset, which finally prompted whoever runs the page to post this apology today:

Yea dude, there ain’t no “we.” It’s just you Messias. You weren’t sorry before or after you posted it, you told a concerned woman with a radio show that it was funny because you Googled it, and then you realized how badly you screwed up so you offered this lame, groveling apology in which you mentioned gender identity for some reason. You even turned off commenting because you knew that nobody would buy it, which is why people are expressing their views with emojis instead.