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Facebook page demands Denny’s boycott over Irish Famine ad

KENNETH HAYNES

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Thursday, March 4, 2010, 3:21 PM

Updated Thursday, March 4, 2010, 5:20 PM

Denny's negative ad campaign showed the chain's dark side

A page created on the social networking site Facebook is demanding a boycott of Denny's restaurant chain over its insensitive “Irish famine” special advertisement that made light of one of the most distressing and tragic times in Irish history.

“Denny's Boycott - The Irish Demand Respect!” has over 600 fans who are enraged over the chain's action.

The founders of the page decided to boycott the chain of diners "the moment Denny's decided to insult the Irish Community with their demeaning TV Ad which offers endless fries and pancakes in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the end of the Irish Potato Famine.”

After negative press and a public backlash, Denny’s pulled the ad from TV and issued the following apology:

"Denny's has a history of using humor in its television advertising. It is certainly not the intention of the company to offend anyone or any group, and we apologize if this spot has in any way. As a result of the feedback we have received from our customers the spot will no longer be on the air after Tuesday. We thank those who took the time to contact us."

But none of this sits well with many of those who commented on the page, and they were not shy in telling how badly this ad campaign affected them.

“Denny's has the audacity to make fun of those who died of starvation and disease that was much worse than any genocide ever recorded in history so they can sell their product on the back of our dead ancestors. The ad was appalling, and Denny's needs to know how we feel about our ancestors' defamation so they can sell a product and make a profit. FYI, they are still running the "special" which should be pulled also!” commented one user.

Another user was far more succinct in his opinion of the whole affair:

“Denny's Sucks.”

Click here to take a look at the page for yourself

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Posted by susankirkpatric on Jun 18, 2010, 12:09 PM EDT

Suck's is not the word...and I won't post how I realy feel about it..But I will not be going there anymore

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Posted by citizen69 on Jun 09, 2010, 12:16 PM EDT

Wow, who thought up this ad campaign? Very insensitive.

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Posted by seanomelbourne on Mar 07, 2010, 07:53 PM EST

AS Prime minister Pitt said at the time "We can now do what we like with the Irish". As i stated 3,000,000 get your maths right. Why was there the need to ship food out of the country under the armed guard of the occupation forces. What famines were there prior to the introduction of "the spud". Yes there was a blight on the potato but the British used the situation to weaken Irish resolve There was a blight on the potato in Britain and Europe at the same time but they had other food sources, our "other food sources were exported.We could not fish the rivers because they were owned by the landlords.We could not shoot deer they to were owned by the landlords and the bishops looked on. "My congregation are so God fearing they would rather pay their rent and starve " (Bishop of Galway 1843). Prime minister Tony Blair apologized for the starvation forced upon the Irish people.Kickstar needs to lift the veil of Victorian propaganda from his mind and stop doing Ireland a disservice. Get the facts pal. Where was the so called great LIBERATOR Dan o Connell,by the way he was a captain in the yeomanry and a MASTER MASON who fawned at the feet of "My Liege" O'CONNELL'S pet name for King George of England. You want history Kickstar I'll educate you.

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Posted by kickstar on Mar 07, 2010, 04:38 PM EST

seanomelbourne Your logic baffles me "To call it a famine is an insult to about 3,000,000 million people" , To every person in Ireland who died because they had nothing to eat this was a Famine it Is not incorrectly called the Great Irish Famine, Yes the Irish Agents of the Absentee British Landlords shipped Thousands of tons of food out of the country all through the Famine, The Way the Irish were living at the time of the potato blight was a guarantee of a disaster waiting to happen..I am not on this post tell you the history of the Famine...Read!! Educate yourself. Things are not as flat as they seem. ***(3,000,000 million) I think is 3 Trillion) 'Starlet' Why don't you go back to abusing the Palestinians and keep your beak out of Irish Affairs.

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Posted by ardgehane on Mar 07, 2010, 01:21 PM EST

Dennys sucks even more than it did before. They had a problem with not wanting to seat and serve black people. I wouldn't eat there if they paid me. Serves them right.

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Posted by keltyeire on Mar 07, 2010, 09:58 AM EST

as an author I wrote on issues with the famine my grandmother suffered and came to this country and it left scars

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