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.
I think the sprinkles and big a$$ cone gave it away that it wasn't a Klan member.... wow...
Hahahahahahahahahah!!! ...Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.......................hahahahahahahahahaha
I SCREAM! YOU SCREAM! WE ALL SCREAM BECAUSE THERE'S A CROSS BURNING ON MY NEIGHBOR'S FRONT LAWN!!!!
ridiculous.
I love it. I think that if the Klan would add sprinkles to their outfits, the world just might be a happier place.
this is ridiculous. "hey, kkk member, beat his a$$!" It is god damn ice cream cone.
I thought the KKK was history, until I received a comment from them on my blog: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2011/08/09/london-riots-august-2011/
white supremacist groups are very real, especially in the US, UK, and Germany, with the latter two having legal political parties revolving around white supremacy.
there must be a town of blind people somewhere... aha! Found it.
Do the brainiacs who mistook this person for a KKK member also get mistaken themselves for KKK members because of their pointed heads?
the owner is kinda dumb or never learns history!!!!
Never thought I would see the day some idiots would think a damn guy dressed in a cone with sprinkles on top would be mistaken for a Klansman this really shows what foolish and sad individuals are walking the streets...I wonder if a Klansman were to stand in the same spot if he would be mistaken for an ice cream cone??? rofl
Village Idiot doesn't apply here... Idiot village? Yeah, that works.
Lol!!!
Dumbest people on the face of the earth
Just like Hitler
I think they should have gone with a strawberry cone... Or maybe chocolate 😛
The man was standing in front of an ice cream shop, for heaven's sake!
People didn't get the correlation?
I don't think anyone would try to sugar coat racism like that.