Everyone loves free food, right?
Obviously being paid to eat is better, but the occasional freebie tends to go down a treat.
Especially when that free food is doughnuts, and you can get them delivered straight to your desk.
So how did Krispy Kreme’s decision to do just that end up backfiring in a major way?
The company marked their first day on delivery app UberEats by pledging to send out thousands of doughnuts to customers in central London absolutely free of charge.
Demand was so high that people couldn’t get onto the app to redeem their freebies, causing the kind of outrage you only really see when people are denied something that would have cost them nothing and required no effort.
Deliveroo responded to the snafu by launching a doughnut giveaway of its own in London, with Crosstown Doughnuts and Doughnut Time participating in the promotion.
However, that’s not even close to being the worst thing from Krispy Kreme’s perspective.
In fact, people’s inability to get their free doughnuts is almost good, compared to the fact that the giveaway was launched on World Diabetes Day.
“What a desperately unthinking and stupid idea to pick World Diabetes Day to strut its sugary stuff,” World Obesity Forum chairman Tam Fry is quoted as saying by Metro.
Krispy Kreme recognised the unfortunate clash on Twitter, saying: “Our doughnuts are an occasional treat, and today we wanted to spread a little joy across the Capital – bad timing, we now know.”
We didn’t think a ‘bad day’ for free doughnuts was even possible, but hey, you learn something new every (World Diabetes) day.
(Main image: Conor Luddy)
