Amys Baking Company Pr Scandal

2013eventclassic

Amy's Baking Company PR Scandal was a May 2013 online meltdown by the husband-and-wife owners of a Scottsdale, Arizona restaurant after their disastrous Kitchen Nightmares appearance, in which Gordon Ramsay walked out for the first time in the show's history. Amy and Samy Bouzaglo torched their own reputation with expletive-laced Facebook attacks on Reddit and Yelp critics before claiming hackers had taken over every account they owned. It is still cited online as a textbook example of how not to respond to bad reviews.

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Overview

Amy's Baking Company PR Scandal refers to the days-long social media blowup by Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, the Scottsdale, Arizona couple who ran the small pastry and Italian restaurant Amy's Baking Company, after their May 10, 2013 episode of Fox's Kitchen Nightmares aired1. During filming, Gordon Ramsay quit for the first time in the show's 82-episode history, telling the couple he could not help owners who refused to listen1. The onscreen carnage included Amy screaming at diners, Samy chasing a customer into the parking lot, tips being pocketed instead of paid to servers, and store-bought desserts being sold as house-made1.

The part that made the restaurant a lasting internet story was not the episode itself but what the Bouzaglos did afterward. Within days they used the restaurant's Facebook page to rant against 'the Yelpers and Reddits' as 'trash,' 'pathetic,' and 'OPRESSORS' [sic], then insisted their accounts had been hacked once screenshots of the meltdown went viral1. The all-caps posts spawned dozens of Reddit threads on r/CringePics, r/videos and r/WTF, and Amy's Baking Company is still cited online as shorthand for a small business owner who makes a bad situation worse by fighting the internet6.

How It Spread

The day before the national broadcast, a preview clip landed on r/videos billed as the craziest owners in the show's history, and the post gathered nearly 8,000 upvotes and about 1,000 comments before moderators locked it6. Three days later, on May 13, 2013, Redditor dojosnail posted a screenshot of the Bouzaglos' Facebook page to r/CringePics showing the couple raging at 'haters,' 'bloggers' and Reddit itself; that single post pulled more than 9,200 upvotes and about 2,800 comments in 48 hours6. By early evening on May 14 every offending Facebook post was gone and a new status insisted the restaurant's website and every social account had been hacked and that the FBI was involved6.

Fired waitress Katy Cipriano hosted an r/IAmA session on May 15 in which she said 'none of amy or samy's actions were staged' and that the episode's portrayal of the couple was accurate4. That same day the Bouzaglos announced a Grand Re-Opening event for May 21 and hired the Phoenix firm Rose+Moser+Allyn Public and Online Relations to run it4. Fox lawyers sent a formal notice on May 17 reminding the couple of a contract clause that barred public statements about the show and threatening to sue if they used the event to talk about Kitchen Nightmares6.

The re-opening went ahead in a stripped-down form on May 21, with security guards and Scottsdale police shooing away news crews and rubberneckers from the strip-mall plaza while a thin dinner crowd ate inside3. The PR firm had already walked away over 'strategy disagreements' and the planned press conference was scrapped3. That same week, Phoenix New Times reported that Samy Bouzaglo, an Israeli citizen born in Morocco, was in immigration court proceedings that had begun two years earlier, and that Amy had pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2003 and served 14 months in federal prison5.

How to Use This Meme

Amy's Baking Company is invoked online as shorthand for a business owner who torpedoes their own reputation by picking a fight with the internet. People bring it up in threads about Yelp or Google-review rants, in tweet screenshots of small business owners going off on customers in all caps, and as a warning example whenever the 'my account was hacked' excuse turns up after an embarrassing post. Reaction posts often quote the 'OPRESSORS' [sic] line directly or link back to the original r/CringePics screenshot6.

Frequently Asked Questions

Amys Baking Company Pr Scandal

2013eventclassic

Amy's Baking Company PR Scandal was a May 2013 online meltdown by the husband-and-wife owners of a Scottsdale, Arizona restaurant after their disastrous Kitchen Nightmares appearance, in which Gordon Ramsay walked out for the first time in the show's history. Amy and Samy Bouzaglo torched their own reputation with expletive-laced Facebook attacks on Reddit and Yelp critics before claiming hackers had taken over every account they owned. It is still cited online as a textbook example of how not to respond to bad reviews.

backfire memes reality tv origin memes streisand effect memes cringe memes so bad its good memes

Overview

Amy's Baking Company PR Scandal refers to the days-long social media blowup by Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, the Scottsdale, Arizona couple who ran the small pastry and Italian restaurant Amy's Baking Company, after their May 10, 2013 episode of Fox's Kitchen Nightmares aired1. During filming, Gordon Ramsay quit for the first time in the show's 82-episode history, telling the couple he could not help owners who refused to listen1. The onscreen carnage included Amy screaming at diners, Samy chasing a customer into the parking lot, tips being pocketed instead of paid to servers, and store-bought desserts being sold as house-made1.

The part that made the restaurant a lasting internet story was not the episode itself but what the Bouzaglos did afterward. Within days they used the restaurant's Facebook page to rant against 'the Yelpers and Reddits' as 'trash,' 'pathetic,' and 'OPRESSORS' [sic], then insisted their accounts had been hacked once screenshots of the meltdown went viral1. The all-caps posts spawned dozens of Reddit threads on r/CringePics, r/videos and r/WTF, and Amy's Baking Company is still cited online as shorthand for a small business owner who makes a bad situation worse by fighting the internet6.

How It Spread

The day before the national broadcast, a preview clip landed on r/videos billed as the craziest owners in the show's history, and the post gathered nearly 8,000 upvotes and about 1,000 comments before moderators locked it6. Three days later, on May 13, 2013, Redditor dojosnail posted a screenshot of the Bouzaglos' Facebook page to r/CringePics showing the couple raging at 'haters,' 'bloggers' and Reddit itself; that single post pulled more than 9,200 upvotes and about 2,800 comments in 48 hours6. By early evening on May 14 every offending Facebook post was gone and a new status insisted the restaurant's website and every social account had been hacked and that the FBI was involved6.

Fired waitress Katy Cipriano hosted an r/IAmA session on May 15 in which she said 'none of amy or samy's actions were staged' and that the episode's portrayal of the couple was accurate4. That same day the Bouzaglos announced a Grand Re-Opening event for May 21 and hired the Phoenix firm Rose+Moser+Allyn Public and Online Relations to run it4. Fox lawyers sent a formal notice on May 17 reminding the couple of a contract clause that barred public statements about the show and threatening to sue if they used the event to talk about Kitchen Nightmares6.

The re-opening went ahead in a stripped-down form on May 21, with security guards and Scottsdale police shooing away news crews and rubberneckers from the strip-mall plaza while a thin dinner crowd ate inside3. The PR firm had already walked away over 'strategy disagreements' and the planned press conference was scrapped3. That same week, Phoenix New Times reported that Samy Bouzaglo, an Israeli citizen born in Morocco, was in immigration court proceedings that had begun two years earlier, and that Amy had pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2003 and served 14 months in federal prison5.

How to Use This Meme

Amy's Baking Company is invoked online as shorthand for a business owner who torpedoes their own reputation by picking a fight with the internet. People bring it up in threads about Yelp or Google-review rants, in tweet screenshots of small business owners going off on customers in all caps, and as a warning example whenever the 'my account was hacked' excuse turns up after an embarrassing post. Reaction posts often quote the 'OPRESSORS' [sic] line directly or link back to the original r/CringePics screenshot6.

Frequently Asked Questions