THE WRAP3 Hours Ago

Paula Deen Butter Campaign Spreads Across the Internet

by Tim Kenneally

Paula Deen fans are looking to stick it to the companies who've severed ties with the embattled celebrity chef. Or perhaps they're trying to butter them up.

Deen supporters are being encouraged to mail butter wrappers in protest to Sears, Walmart and other companies that split with Deen after news broke that she had admitted using the N-word.

Also read: Paula Deen's Multimillion-Dollar Disaster: What's the Cost of the N-Word?

The campaign, dubbed the National Butter Wrappers for Paula Protest, hopes to convince the companies to bring Deen back into the fold by inundating them with wrappers.

"Major corporations have been moved to action by social protests for decades. When you mail an empty butter wrapper to these corporations, you're sending a very clear message, telling them that you expect them to reverse their decisions, and restock Paula Deen products," the protest's website reads. "The customer's voice is the most powerful form of communication with a corporation, especially when the customer's voice represents millions of fans placing a few butter wrappers in the mail."

See video: Paula Deen: 5 Golden, Butter-Drenched Moments

Protesters are encouraged to send "clean, empty" butter wrappers to the company. John Schmitt, the Indianapolis hotel night auditor who launched the campaign, explained to CNN that he at first considered the possibility of sending full sticks of butter to the corporation, but realized that such a waste of butter would not sit well with Deen.

Companies fled en masse from Deen after it was revealed last month that she admitted to uttering a racial slur in the past, while being deposed for a lawsuit.

Also read: Paula Deen Switches Lawyers in Discrimination Lawsuit

Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, are being sued by Lisa Jackson, a former employee at Deen's restaurant Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. Jackson said that Hiers created a racially hostile work environment, and Deen did nothing to stop it.

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Paula Deen Butter Campaign Spreads Across the Internet
https://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/paula-deen-butter-campaign-spreads-across-internet-104641

John Hames