Cafe defends 'disgusting' Valentine's Day sign
A café has copped criticism over a Valentine’s Day sign that has been described as “disgusting and disheartening”.
Eifel on Eden in Auckland put a sign out on Wednesday.
“On Valentine’s Day open the car door for her,” it reads.
“After Valentine’s Day open the car boot for her.”
One woman commented claiming her friend was “kidnapped and shoved into a boot” but managed to escape.
Another suggested the sign promotes “violence, kidnapping, abduction and murder”.
Women’s Refuge New Zealand shared a picture of the sign on Facebook.
The refuge wrote New Zealand has the highest rate of domestic and family violence in the developed world, with one in three women experiencing domestic violence at some point in their lifetime.
“It’s not hard to see why we are very disheartened and disgusted to see this sign displayed in Auckland at Eiffel en Eden on Dominion Road,” the refuge wrote.
“Domestic violence is not a laughing matter and a huge part of work is changing people’s attitudes towards this serious national problem.”
“I’m gobsmacked that anyone could think that’s appropriate let alone funny,” one woman wrote about the sign.
The café’s owner has defended the sign.
He told Newshub the boot line means “you should always open the boot when you’re shopping”.
The owner added a “very rude” woman rubbed out the boot part of the sign.
However, it’s not the first time the Eiffel en Eden has landed in hot water over controversial signage, according to Dr Steph Borelle of Auckland University of Technology.
In March 2018, the café had a sign which read, “arguing with a woman is like reading the software license agreement – in the end you just have to ignore everything and click, ‘I agree’.”
The latest sign has been met with furore on Facebook.
One woman called to boycott the café.
“I’m gobsmacked that anyone could that that’s appropriate let alone funny,” she wrote.
Others called it misogynistic.
Another woman hoped management “had enough brains to scrub this message out”.
“Terrible, not funny,” she wrote.
However, some Twitter users weren’t offended by the sign.
“Jimmy Carr regularly recites way more vulgar jokes than this,” one woman tweeted.
“Being offended doesn’t give you a right to enact your vigilante justice and thought policing. Get over yourselves.”
Yahoo7 has contacted Eiffel en Eden for comment.
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