A Florida shop had to scrap its ice cream cone mascot because passers-by thought it looked like a man dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
"We were just trying to get people to come in," store employee Jasmine Gonzalez told CNN affiliate WTSP. "We thought it was something fun for people, but eventually people took it the wrong way."
The Ice Cream Family Corner and Sandwiches shop opened a few months ago in Ocala. The owners hired a man to stand outside the shop dressed in a vanilla ice cream cone costume to attract business.
At first store owners told WTSP they had no idea the outfit was upsetting passers-by, but then they noticed a drop in business, and began to wonder what was impacting their sales.
Eventually, Gonzalez said they were tipped off that people were avoiding the shop, because they thought the peaked cap was not an ice cream cone costume, but a KKK robe. The mascot was immediately pulled off the street.
Some customers told WTSP they could understand the confusion, while others laughed at the ordeal.
"They (KKK members) don't color themselves (with sprinkles) like that," Wayne Austin chuckled to WTSP as he looked at the costume.
They should have gone with strawberry.
That's funny, reminds me of back in the early 80's I dressed my 2 year old son as a "conehead' for Halloween and it had the same effect! Totally innocent but understandable!
The link between Hitler and ice cream cones have never been proven. 😀
the link lies within the ice cream sprinkle factor
The poor KKK probably have people thinking they sell ice cream now whenever they rally! LOL
Idiots... idiots... idiots...
TO ALL WHO LOVE FREEDOM: CNN CENSORS IT'S POLITICAL TICKER!!! FOR CONTENT, NOT OFFENSIVE SPEECH, CONTENT.
White People: Thou doth protest too vehemently...
You are obviously and clearly a racist willy. Please feel free to go back to the "Homeland" if you are so unsatisfied. Germany or Africa, your choice. Although I suspect you'd choose the second. I'll even pay the one way ticket. Heck. I'd imagine that ALL Americans would gladly give to a fund to ship ALL racist pigs such as yourself to your "Homeland" of choice.
How utterly stupid. Leave it to a bunch of morons to think an ice cream cone is racist.
Yes. You are a wise person. That's exactly what the article says. People think ice cream cones are racist. (sarc)
Wow. People are stupid. Did no one notice the cone? PC America has gone completely off the deep end.
We often take samples of background/sceneries in this world, giving only the amount of time something is worth relative to our important lives. What you have is a study in how there was no double takes...no suspension of disbelief in a great many passersby...meaning that maybe it was totally believable for a guy to be trying to sell ice cream in this town while wearing a K K K outfit. You brain decodes raw data from your eyes and recognition combines that raw data with prior experience. You can call it PC, but it's true. Then again, solicitors annoy me, and I would pass the shop even if knew he was a cone!
My hope is the chocolate-vanilla twist cone can 'just get along.' Last thing we need are flavor-based tensions in the dairy confectionery industry.
The Florida education system deserves an award for this
"You can't see who's in cahoots/ Cause now the KKK/ Wears three-piece suits,"
Well be thankful for the little things... at least business didn't INCREASE for KKK cones.
@bigwilliestyles:
Black people rage that this stuff happens, and then when white people try to let it be known that it's unacceptable to them, you say they're protesting to much. What is it you, bigwilliestyles, want? Methinks you like to white bash with the best of them.
I'm more afraid of the people dressed in Arabian Attire than guys decked out in white gowns with matching masks
Really? That costume has a cone and sprinkles on it. Do people even know what the Ku Klux Klan's outfit looks like?
Oh no !!! It's the dreaded Ku Klux Kone