Hotdog bar in controversy over Facebook meme
An Adelaide hotdog bar has been slammed online and by disability advocates after posting a meme of a young man with Down syndrome on Facebook.
Downtown HDCB in Hindley St posted the picture of the young man with the caption “Where do I work? Downtown”, but it has since been removed.
The post was accompanied by a message saying ‘Aaron’ was a star bartender who could make one ‘hell of a f***in’ Manhatten’.
People have taken to the company’s Facebook page to share their outrage.
Chris Murphy posted: “Let me tell you something, mate. Down syndrome people are beautiful, loving people with far more integrity than you.”
Emily Worley also took to Facebook to vent her disgust.
“I read about your meme with the young man with down syndrome. You should be ashamed. You make me sick,” she wrote on the company’s Facebook page.
Down Syndrome Australia chief executive Catherine McAlpine told News Ltd the creation of a fake employee using what she recognised as a stock photo was ‘cruel’.
“It’s not funny, it’s not clever and we’d go as far as to say it’s cruel (when) what people with Down syndrome want is the dignity of a job,” she said.
The hotdog bar’s co-owner Gareth Lewis reportedly said he did not find the image offensive and that a business partner had asked him to take the picture down.
“It depends on what you deem inappropriate,” he told News Ltd.
“There has been no pornography or any reference to a disability.”
He did say he would not post anything similar again though.
