Bakery’s response to company asking for cake for celebrity in exchange for exposure

A bakery has responded to a PR firm on social media regarding their request for free baked goods for a celebrity’s birthday, in exchange for exposure. In a Facebook post on 27 July, put up a post with a screenshot of an email exchange between the bakery and the PR company that represents the celebrity, 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 email from the management team said: ‘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 email continued with them putting in a request for two cakes and 100 cupcakes with the theme ‘camp as tits’. In response to the email, the bakery said: ‘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 support on social media One user wrote: ‘Great response’, while another said ‘Well done! Charity is one thing and that is another.’ On 31 July, the bakery put another post up on social media saying they have now been ‘threatened’ with legal action 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.’ , owned by Rebecca Severs, was first established seven and a half years ago. Mrs Severs told The Independent that she’s ‘always been into baking’ and said after baking cakes for her kids, she wanted to take things a step further. Mrs Severs said she started off the business in her own home, where 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 said she wanted to make things work as baking was something she loved doing and eventually, she invested in some business coaching which she said is when her business ‘started to really take off’. Mrs Severs said the difficulties she faced sparked that passion ‘for people being valued properly for their time and their skill’ in the industry and said, ‘If you’re not getting paid properly for it, it’s not something you can do.’ Just over two months ago, Mrs Severs opened her first shop with her team in Yorkshire and has been ‘totally overwhelmed by the support and the success of it so far.’ , which has over 2,000 followers on Instagram offers a range of bespoke cakes for every occasion and with the new store opening, Mrs Severs says ‘the local community and surrounding areas have just completely got behind us, it’s been so busy.’ Speaking about the email she received earlier this week, Mrs Severs said this was her first proper encounter with ‘free exposure,’ but said she knows ‘lots of people in the industry and I know that it does happen an awful lot.’ The passionate cake designer who leads a team of six highlighted the importance of paying small businesses and said: ‘Women should not feel guilty about charging for their work and for earning money.’