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 don't need to order butter pecan for a while.
Passersby boneheads.....
Ice cream is racist.
This country is way out of hand with this type of b.s. anyone in their right mind knows thats a dang ice cream cone....i am with the others grow the eff up.... put on your big girl/boy pants and shuddup!
how can people (the customers) be that stupid and still breathe??
Offensive it seems is in the eye of the beholder.
How can they not see it's an ice cream cone? The people of FloriDUH amaze me.
And in other news, the ice-cream shop owner said it's going to be a rocky road back to profitability 😛
Those blasted waffle cone supremacists are at it again!
Kudo's for CNN for cropping the picture to only show the Ice cream top of the costume.. Idiots..
Just shows how stupid the politically correct minded in this country are. Nothing more to say. Don't need to.
OMG it is just so funny I think I am gonna pee myself!
CNN is censoring the Political Ticker blog. Not for offensive posts, but for post content. They make the term freedom of speech a total sham.
How can people not tell that's an ice cream cone. So many people looking for an excuse to cause problems. Political correctness = pussification of America.
I would like to try the "Achtung Almond," "Juden Free Fudge," and "Goose Step Berry Swirl."
I scream, you scream, we all scream for klu klux klan.