Chocolate bar brand Snickers has apologised after sending out a tweet this week comparing Welsh place names to ‘someone sitting on a keyboard’.
The post from Snickers official UK social media account was subsequently deleted. It listed a number of possible homegrown place names linked to a question which stated, “A place in Wales or someone sat on a keyboard? A thread.”
Underneath it then went on to name check the likes of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Rhosllanerchrugog and Penmaenmawr.
The tweet was met with an angry reaction, with many wondering what could have prompted it in the first place.
“Hi. This was tweeted from your @SNICKERSUK account this morning – maybe if you replace ‘Welsh’ with another language you’d see how bigoted this comes across,” replied @newcymru.
“Offending a few million Welsh and a few million Welsh-Americans not great on business side of things as well!”
Dan Jardine added: “Take a lesson in the Welsh language and culture, Snickers – you’re not you when you’re hungry.
“Rethink this – there are three million of us that you’re about to lose as customers”, replied another.
However, Snickers – which is made by confectionery giant Mars – then proceeded to make things even worse by making a joke of it rather than apologise, as shown in this tweet below:
“So every time your media team get hungry they turn into xenophobic racists? Not even an apology, just sarcastic replies,” retorted Subversive Sounds.
Snickers was then prompted to post a more sincere apology, reading: “From everyone at Snickers UK we’re sorry to everyone offended by our last tweet, we totally misjudged it and hold our hands up for that.
“We are hugely and wholeheartedly thankful for all our Welsh fans in the UK and all over the world, and promise not to let ill-informed Tweets ruin this relationship any further.”
