A fried chicken restaurant in Toronto has been taking heat online after an Instagram account using their brand's name posted offensive comments on an influencer's page.
Chicken and waffle joint The Dirty Bird posted to their main Toronto account apologizing for a comment made under the handle of a Mississauga account, which it appears has now since been deleted.
The apology post says the Mississauga account was not approved or under their control, and that they're "saddened, disgusted and shocked" by the comments made on the influencer's Instagram.
"We want to preface this note with an apology to @bodmonzaid. And to anyone and everyone whom was affected by that inappropriate post," reads the caption to the apology post.
"We profusely and sincerely apologize. We do not condone or support any of the comments made outside of this account."
@bodmonzaid is the handle of Laiba Zaid, a fitness and beauty blogger/personal trainer who originally moved to Canada from Pakistan at age four and has over a million followers. They and others aren't taking kindly to the apology, with the apology post racking up lots of negative comments.
It's not surprising, considering the comment was: "You tried your maximum to be white look but brutally failed and spoiled the natural appearance now age factors as time out and at this time only second marriage man could be showed interest in you?"
Zaid, who openly discusses topics like culture and marriage on her account, posted a screengrab of the comment to her Instagram story, tagging the Mississauga Dirty Bird account and writing, "you are disgusting."
"Did you guys read that?" she says in disbelief in her next Instagram story post, going on to say that the account had been spamming her for a while but only with requests to visit the restaurant.
After this comment, though, she goes on to call them out, saying the people behind the restaurants are "trash" and people shouldn't visit any of the locations, and that she was shocked to see that someone had sent DM's from the account saying they themselves were Pakistani.
In another story post she says she's planning on dealing with the issue by leaving them a review so people know "what kind of restaurant they'll be supporting when they walk into there."
"This video is in no way telling you guys to leave a review, but I'm just letting you guys know how I'm planning on ending this," says Zaid.
"The account was created by the father of the franchisee to help his son Fahad with promoting his new location in Mississauga," Daniel Quintas, one of the original five founders of Dirty Bird, tells blogTO.
"We were not aware of the comments being made and in no way do they portray the values of The Dirty Bird. We are saddened and angry by the comments made by the father. They have no place in society."
He says they should have noticed and asked them to stop using the Dirty Bird name on social media much sooner.
"We apologize for not being proactive in monitoring their actions and have since asked them not to post anything using our brand. They never had approval to do so," says Quintas.
"We are going to get them some help and hopefully this will make them understand that their actions need to be atoned for and hopefully educate them on what they did wrong so that they can learn to be better."
Dirty Bird reached out to Zaid in the hopes of making things right, and Quintas says they "are on a good path to resolving this issue."
Zaid tells blogTO that the restaurant reached out to her immediately after she posted her stories, saying the comments came from the 60-year-old father.
"After they deleted their account they had the Toronto location take all the backlash and although the Toronto location is very upset and apologetic I have yet to receive a public apology from the Mississauga location who issued the comment," Zaid tells blogTO.
"It has also come to my attention that I am not the first blogger who was harassed by that restaurant. In this case it's clear that there is some deep-rooted misogyny with that location. They still have a large enough ego to not issue a public apology and that is what I am looking for."
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