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Me So Hungry: Great Tasting Restaurant or Restaurant With Bad Taste?

Bradley W. Brooks, Cara O. Peters, Steven M. Cox
December 31, 2018
SKU:
BUS-004864
Region: 
North America
Topic: 
Marketing & Sales
Length: 
3 pages
Keywords: 
cultural appropriation, ethical dilema, Social Justice, markteing, stereotype
Student Price: 
$4.00 (€3.7)
Average rating: 
0

In July 2017, Sarah Cattoor and her husband, Ryan Greening, were less than a month away from opening their new breakfast café in West Des Moines, Iowa. Consumers, however, began expressing outrage about the new restaurant’s name, Me So Hungry, claiming it offended two different ethnic groups. The name was found by the African-American community to be an insulting attempt to appropriate hip-hop. It was also characterized by Asian Americans as an offensive use of an Asian stereotype.

Learning Outcomes: 
  • Recognize the potential role of marketing in cultural appropriation and reinforcing negative stereotypes
  • Recognize how a consumer company can become the target of online criticisms and the contexts within which these criticisms can spread rapidly
  • Apply theory on creating brand names in evaluating a restaurant name
  • Develop strategies for replying to negative public relations for a consumer company
  • Design a plan for how to revise a company’s branding strategies