Tool firm is blasted for ‘joke about gay builders’
BUT COMPANY SPOKESMAN CALLS CRITICS ‘SNOWFLAKES’
A SPOKESMAN for a tool company blasted for poking fun at gay men on Facebook has defended a controversial post - insisting it was a ‘joke’ and that critics are ‘snowflakes.’
Toolfolks.com posted that a customer had left a tool bag behind at its Stamford Street store in Ashton-under-Lyne. The post included images of gay porn magazines, a ‘Gay Builders do it better’ handbook and the character Daffyd from BBC comedy Little Britain. It asked Facebook users to tag their friends.
A link was messaged to customers after it was posted on Sunday.
The post read: “One of our customers left his tool bag in the shop this week. We can’t work out who it was.
“Took some images of what was in the side compartment.
“If you know whose bag this is please let him know it’s ready for collection.”
The joke backfired, with hundreds of people on social media complaining.
Some customers said they had alerted tools firm DeWalt as their logo had been used.
Harry Wright, who bought tools from the company when he worked on a TV programme, said: “I got this text message through, personalised to me, about the lost property. I clicked the link. It took me to the Facebook post with images of gay porn basically taking the p***s out of gay people.
“I felt attacked, if it was just on Facebook I could have ignored it, but I was directly texted this link.”
A spokesman for Toolfolks.com described critics as ‘snowflakes’ when contacted by the M.E.N. “It was just a joke,” he added. The company later responded on Facebook: “The joke was about finding something embarrassing in a tool bag. If I used a sex aid would the joke be any different?”
A spokeswoman for DeWalt said: “That post was not authorised by our company and has been removed.”