The owner of a Leeds burger joint, which had its controversial adverts featuring Madeleine McCann banned, has spoken out.
The Otley Burger Company owner Joe Scholey, 29, posted a dark ‘joke’ across social media platforms on Mother’s Day (March 27). The promotional image featured the missing then-toddler and mum Kate McCann.
The caption on the image read: "With burgers this good, you’ll leave your kids at home. What’s the worst that could happen [sic] Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there.”
Read more: Leeds takeaway owner gets death threats after Madeleine McCann post
The controversial post, shared to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, has been taken down after complaints were made to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). The ASA said the post "trivialised" Madeleine's disappearance and was likely to cause "unjustified distress and serious and widespread offence".
Defending the posts, Joe said that the controversy surrounding his Madeleine McCann adverts had put attention back onto the case. He said: “At the end of the day, it’s bringing awareness to a kid that’s gone missing abroad. She’s probably dead but if she is alive, the picture is back out there, isn’t it?”
Asked if he felt he was providing a public service, Joe admitted that he wasn’t doing it for that purpose “but you could look at it like that”, stating that he’d posted the advert to “make money, simple as”.
Joe was told to avoid causing such controversy in the future. Joe said: “The ASA has banned an advert that was already taken offline and now all these news media companies have taken this advert and put it all over the internet – even though it’s a banned advert and they’re trying to have a dig about it.
“They’ve done exactly what I’ve done by posting the advert which is banned.”
Joe puts his hands up and admits the ‘joke’ “wasn’t to everyone’s tastes”, and says the ASA was “just doing their jobs”. He added overall the banned advert had a positive effect on his business, equalling more sales which helped towards "paying tax bills".
What do you think of Joe's response? Leave your thoughts in the comments sections below.
'We'll tone it down'
The 29-year-old added all of the Madeleine McCann posts had been taken down before the ASA had contacted him, informing him of the ban. Joe says the ASA told him to contact them in future before posting anything similarly controversial, so he could get its approval first.
Asked whether he would avoid causing controversy in future, Joe said: “Yeah, I think we’ll figure out how to tone it down. It is what it is. They do their job and we’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do, it’s playing the game. They’re the authority, the buck stops where it stops and now we go down a different avenue.”
Joe says not to expect any similar dark ‘jokes’ from The Otley Burger Company for the upcoming Father’s Day (June 19) either, in what would be a break from his tradition of stirring up controversy on these days. In the past he’s shared posts making light of disgraced mum Karen Matthews for Mother’s Day and Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Jimmy Saville and Fred West for Father’s Day, in 2021.
Joe also provoked controversy by accusing Google one-star reviewers of being 'sexual predators' to get their scores deleted.
“I don’t think it will be as bad, it will be quite toned down this year. We’ve done the same kind of gag now three times and we’re kind of just like let’s move on with a different joke,” concluded Joe.
