‘To Die For’: Indiana Restaurant Yanks Billboards Mocking Jonestown Massacre
- Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:02am by
Scott Baker
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SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana restaurant that erected billboards referring to the 1978 Jonestown cult massacre in which more than 900 people died has removed the signs following complaints that the signs were offensive.
Jeff Leslie, vice president of sales and marketing at Hacienda, acknowledged that the billboards were a mistake. He said the South Bend-based company ordered the signs removed less than two weeks into Hacienda’s new advertising campaign.
“Our role is not to be controversial or even edgy. We want to be noticed — and there’s a difference,” Leslie told the South Bend Tribune. “We have a responsibility to (advertise) with care, and that‘s why we’re pulling this ad. We made a mistake and don’t want to have a negative image in the community.”
The billboards included the statement, “We’re like a cult with better Kool-Aid,” over a glass containing a mixed drink, as well as the phrase “To die for!”
In November 1978, more than 900 members of Jim Jones‘ People’s Temple drank cyanide-laced, grape-flavored punch in a mass murder and suicide in the group’s compound in Guyana.
Patricia Barbera-Brown of South Bend, who lives a few blocks away from one of the billboards, said she was so shocked when she initially read the message that she drove around the block.
“I thought perhaps I had misread the sign,” she recalls. “It brought back quite a few horrible images and memories, and the very notion that a local restaurant would trivialize such a worldwide tragedy to simply increase their sales of cocktails is outrageous to me, and it offended me to the core.”
She sent an e-mail to Hacienda‘s executive telling them the billboards weren’t “funny at all,“ calling them ”extremely offensive and very irresponsible marketing.”
Hacienda executives responded in writing, apologizing for offending her and informing her that the billboards would be taken down.
Like many restaurant companies, Leslie said Hacienda uses billboard advertising to connect with the community and resonate with customers. He said that company leaders look every year at their restaurants, the economy, their customers, and the competition to determine an idea or theme to use for advertising.
As they brainstormed about how people belong to clubs and teams, he said they discussed how an entity can develop a cult following of like-minded people.
“It went the wrong direction, hit a nerve, and we have come to realize we should not have done this billboard. We lose the core message,” he said.
Katherine Sredl, assistant professor of marketing at the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, agreed that the company’s message came across wrong.
“They want people to think there are more things to love there than the food, but it’s not the right humor for its clientele,” she said.
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Comments (44)
ITookTheRedPill
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 3:21pmThere were many influences on Peoples Temple and on Jonestown. Peoples Temple was a blend of the beliefs and movements of the 1960‘s and 1970’s, and Liberation Theology was one the most influential of those beliefs, a belief that still shapes the world we live in today.
Report Post »PIL
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 1:53pmI work in advertising and let me tell you, you can’t kill for this kind of publicity. 99% of the time our advertising messages are ignored, in direct response “success” is defined as having 3% of the junk mail recipients call your 1-800 number or write you back. Get 6% and it’s a freaking miracle. So kudos to the ad agency that did this billboard? Offensive, perhaps, but how else do you get publicity? Newsflash: Cute doesn’t always work.
SAY NO TO LABOR UNIONS!
Report Post »http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/2011/02/say-no-to-government-labor-unions.html
Cherynn
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 12:15pmI see the signs for this place in my neighborhood all the time. For the last year they have been getting weirder and weirder. When you see thier prices,,,,,,,,you try the koolaide.
Report Post »familyguy
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 12:05pmfact of life; If you pick a dumb way to die people will make fun of you. and should death by kool-aid thats funny. Almost as good as death by pudding.
Report Post »Redistributor
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:57amumm, I dont want toe eat at a restaurant that’s “like a cult”! creepy
Report Post »yomogo
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:43amUH, I saw the billboard and thought, silly me, that it was referring to Obama supporters and was ready to go to the restaurant to show my support for their boldness. People who were offended were most likely the people I thought this was making fun of — the complaints had to do with the fact that it images the modern-day, present K-drinkers. They used JJ as an exuse. Guess I won’t be going now for some Mexican food.
By the way, their billboards are always funny. One was “Fartsy, Not Artsy”, which I thought was making fun of the “art crowd ie. liberals funding for performing arts—-guess I read too much into things, eh?
Report Post »MAJORMINOR
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:38amCould have been very effective and not so upsetting without the “to die for” line. Many references are made today to “KoolAid” without being so upsetting.
Report Post »Warphead
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:24amAnybody notice the billboard background looks like a Ouija board?
Report Post »Warphead
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:22amJonestown massacre is to Hacienda restaurant as Jim Jones is to Kool-Aid. Not a good mix.
Report Post »Jim in Houston
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 9:50amIt drives the Kool Aid drinkers nuts. Too funny!
Report Post »dthej
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 9:16am900 brainwashed people die at once and now 30 some years later it’s used in an ad campaign and called “creative/pushing the envelope” ..we are growing sicker and sicker fast and it won’t be long from now when it all comes to an end and this world and the things in it will just be a bad memory.
Report Post »Think about if it was a close family member killed from that event and then to see this billboard along the highway…you’d not be very happy at all. I try to place myself in the shoes of those effected, as we all should before saying or doing such stupid things. The fact that this was even done reveals how people think..I can just see that group of marketing people high fiving and congratulating one another for coming up with it…so proud and money well earned huh?
Gonzo
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:50amThese advertising guys need to form a union. That’s how you keep a job when your talent and qualifications are suspect.
Report Post »hflndrs
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:39amIn some cases I think we need more Kool-Aid, sneakers and comets. Sorry I did find it amusing but I guess it is insensitive.
Report Post »hempstead1944
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:36amAnyone remember EXACTLY what happened in Jonestown? The brothers and sisters were fed kool aid just like they are being fed it today by the Dems……figuratively speaking….
Report Post »The Gooch
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:34amYep. When I think fine Mexican restaurants, of course the state of Indiana is the first in the union to come to mind. I don’t know about in your neck of the woods, but here in West-By God-Virginia easily 50% of our billboards are devoted to fat, balding insurance agents.
Report Post »Damn you, free speech! Any eatery that subjects one Patricia Barbera-Brown to “the vapuhs” deserves my consideration. Man, was that “ME!” monster in rare form.
60yroldfemale
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:12amPC is all about keeping the bad effects of sheeple thinking under the sheepskin rug. At the time this happened most Americans understood that following a leader who loves death more than life is not a good idea. We have Politically Corrected ourselves out of this way of thinking.
Report Post »Here’s a song heard in a beach bar in 1979.
Down in Gianna where the happy folks live
Everybody doing what Bwanna Jim said,
He say, Kool Aid, ….cyannide
Then the band all fell down.
It was sung to a J. Buffett tune and I don’t remember being offended.
In fact, it’s more of a feeling that just blindly following without question is stupid.
Oh, God!
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 9:05amThe Judy’s also had a song about Jim Jones, called Guyana Punch. No kidding, look it up. My sister has the album, Washarama. Wow, that dates me!!!
Report Post »goatkid
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:04amIt is in poor taste. Someone wasn’t thinking. I have to agree with rob though. We are too politicaly correct.
Report Post »Axeman4
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 8:02amWhat’s wrong? It’s actually kinda funny!
Report Post »Rob
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:51amWe don’t have the right not to be offended. We are too politically correct.
I wouldn’t have used that sign, but too bad.
Report Post »WILLIAM E.
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:45amSign just shows Socialism @ it’s best !! No problem.
sissykatz
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:44amIt is rather insensitive, but I guess I have just become desensitized, we all use the term Kool aid so much.But all put together with cult,kool aid, and to die for, it is a little much. They accomplished what they were after and got more advertizing than they paid for.
Report Post »9thCommandment
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:44amFunny & a good reminder for morons. Pattie should have a sip & shut the ____ Up.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:32amMeh… everyone uses the Kool-Aid reference.
Report Post »PA PATRIOT
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:26amOffensive yes, but the ad was productive. It has national attention and people talking.
Report Post »SHTFM.COM Are You Prepared ?
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:50am@PA PATRIOT
That’s why they put it up. NATIONAL headlines not just local.
Report Post »Conserving Ink
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:58amUnfortunely my dark sense of humor finds it funny. I know its socially out of line, but its funny.
Report Post »_________________________________________________________________
http://conserving-ink.blogspot.com/2011/02/you-have-been-adjusted.html
GhostOfJefferson
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 9:06amPeople who follow cults to the point of mass suicide need to be mocked, derided and ridiculed. Quite serious.
I do know that some refused the Kool Aid, but only once they went yellow about drinking it. Ten seconds prior to being asked to quaff they were standing there ready to drink it.
I also find Heaven’s Gate jokes darkly funny. “Here at Bob’s Website Development, we program your website on time and under budget, and we promise not to commit mass suicide until you’re 100% satisfied with our work!”
Report Post »Islesfordian
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 9:08amI don’t find it that funny, not because I am offended. It just seems lame, and I don’t get why I would find attractive the idea of being compared to a cultmember.
I imagine an ad for Dachau Diet Pills might be even more “offensive” and likely to get attention, and about as ineffective in getting customers to patronize the business.
Report Post »salvawhoray
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 10:22amI don’t see how this is offensive, the people that died in jones town were weak minded people that were going to die soon anyways.
Report Post »SpankDaMonkey
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 7:25am.
Report Post »That’s just wrong! But Funny………………….
Faith in God
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 2:03pmits wrong and funny
but really, only old people get the connection between this add and Jonestown settlement. If anyone who is 30 years or younger will think this is only about politics.
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