Rafaela, Santa Fe – “Honky Donky”, a fast food store in Rafaela, Santa Fe is selling products with the name of Holocaust victims (a hamburger was called “Anne Frank”) or that they made reference to those responsible for the loss of millions of human lives in World War II (potatoes Adolf or Benito, for Hitler or Mussolini).
The event generated widespread repudiation, particularly from the Rafaela Jewish Community, which issued a statement. The company apologized and announced a change in its sales “strategy.”
After the dissemination of the images, the event was strongly repudiated, mainly from different Jewish communities in the province of Santa Fe. One of them was the Rafaela Jewish Community, which, through a statement, expressed “its deepest sense of repudiation and indignation.” and notified that “they will take the corresponding legal actions.”
In the same line, Ariel Rosenthal , a member of the board of directors of the Rafaela Jewish Community, expressed that they found out about this controversial marketing campaign in March but, when speaking with the owners of the premises, they themselves promised to withdraw the disputed names. ” We do not understand the delay in doing it but I understand that at this moment it is being modified and there will be an apology ,” he said.
Likewise, Rosenthal assured that it is a “completely atypical” event in Rafaela, a city where, according to him, there is “an excellent coexistence between the different communities and religions.”
Although it seems unusual that someone would come up with this type of marketing action, just after the public escrache, Honky Donky made a release on their social networks.
“From our gastronomic venture we apologize for the offense and the lack of sense of responsibility for the misuse of names that refer to open wounds in Humanity as a whole,” the post began.
And he added that the criticism received “helped them to reflect in depth on the unacceptable trivialization of the unspeakable pain of millions of people who are victims of the machinery of death and extermination as were (sic) totalitarianisms.”
They also reported that they renamed their products , and this time they chose historical figures related to peace as a value in their lives . For example, “Anne Frank” is now called “Anne Boleyn”, one of the wives of Henry VIII, who was beheaded unjustly accused of treason, incest and adultery.
The same would happen with the other products that will bear the names of defenders of Peace and Human Rights, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luher King, Dalai Lama, Barak Obama, Teresa de Calculta, Carlos Mujica, Nelson Mandela, Mijail Gorbachev, Juan Pablo I, among others.
