Bakery delivers sensible response to ‘well-known celebrity’ request at no cost cake

A bakery has responded to a PR agency on social media concerning their request at no cost baked items for a celeb’s birthday, in change for publicity.

In a Facebook submit on 27 July, Three Little Birds Bakery put up a submit with a screenshot of an electronic mail change between the bakery and the PR firm that represents the superstar, with the caption: “This poor celebrity apparently can’t afford to pay people for their products and services. Spare a thought! What happened to women supporting women.”

The electronic mail from the administration group stated: “We are organising a 40th Birthday Party for a well-known celebrity on the 1st of September 2023 in Manchester. In return for being a supplier for the event, payment would be made in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700K followers, as well as promoted on OK Magazine. They will be crediting all the suppliers on these platforms. The party has a guest list full of celebrities and industry people from tv/film and music, so loads of work would come from it.”

The electronic mail continued with them placing in a request for 2 muffins and 100 cupcakes with the theme “camp as tits”.

In response to the e-mail, the bakery stated: “I’m so sorry to hear that your client has fallen out on such hard times they can’t afford to pay small businesses for their products. Unfortunately, as my mortgage provider doesn’t take payment ‘in the form of promotion on their socials’, and my staff can’t feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, I’ll have to decline your very generous offer.”

The bakery was met with an outpouring of help on social media

One person wrote: “Great response”, whereas one other stated “Well done! Charity is one thing and that is another.”

On 31 July, the bakery put one other submit up on social media saying they’ve now been “threatened” with authorized motion and added: “I’ve now been threatened with legal action by….as a response to this post which they say is encouraging defamation of their business.”

Three Little Birds Bakery, owned by Rebecca Severs, was first established seven and a half years in the past. Mrs Severs advised The Independent that she’s “always been into baking” and stated after baking muffins for her children, she needed to take issues a step additional.

Mrs Severs stated she began off the enterprise in her own residence, the place she “didn’t charge nearly enough” for her work.

“I remember working after one Christmas and I made £2 an hour and thinking ‘Why am I doing this’ because it’s so stressful and it’s so time-consuming but I’m not really making a proper wage.”

Mrs Severs stated she needed to make issues work as baking was one thing she liked doing and finally, she invested in some enterprise teaching which she stated is when her enterprise “started to really take off”.

Mrs Severs stated the difficulties she confronted sparked that keenness “for people being valued properly for their time and their skill” within the business and stated, “If you’re not getting paid properly for it, it’s not something you can do.”

Just over two months in the past, Mrs Severs opened her first store along with her group in Yorkshire and has been “totally overwhelmed by the support and the success of it so far.”

Three Little Birds Bakery, which has over 2,000 followers on Instagram gives a spread of bespoke muffins for each event and with the brand new retailer opening, Mrs Severs says “the local community and surrounding areas have just completely got behind us, it’s been so busy.”

Speaking concerning the electronic mail she obtained earlier this week, Mrs Severs stated this was her first correct encounter with “free exposure,” however stated she is aware of “lots of people in the industry and I know that it does happen an awful lot.”

The passionate cake designer who leads a group of six highlighted the significance of paying small companies and stated: “Women should not feel guilty about charging for their work and for earning money.”