CITY Beach has quickly removed a prank product from its store shelves, after an outraged mother lashed out at them in a heated Facebook post.
In the post, the woman said she went into the Aussie surf chain’s North Lakes store with her daughter, when she came across this gag item:
“great for: marriage! extortion! laughs!”Source:Facebook
The product is a fake pregnancy test that always returns a positive result, manufactured by the novelty product brand Bigmouth Inc.
She described the faux-pregnancy test as “ridiculously offensive”, and explained her view by saying: “You do realise young teenage girls shop in your stores right? You do realise that many mothers (including not-yet mothers) have gone through countless & expensive IVF procedures in order to achieve a positive result on a REAL pregnancy stick.”
She said she complained to the girl at the counter, who she said initially informed her they would not remove the product from their shelves, as it’s the buyer’s job to ensure all sold products are bought according to the store’s standards.
The woman, who has now chosen to remain anonymous, told news.com.au she removed the post after receiving a backlash, but allowed us to post a screenshot of it:
The original post on City Beach’s Facebook page.Source:Facebook
The post had received hundreds of Likes and dozens of shares, but several comments were less favourable.
“I never expected that posting my opinion would attract comments like ‘I hope your baby dies’, or ‘maybe you should do your shopping online from the kitchen where you belong,’” she told news.com.au.
“I know for me and many other mothers, our positive test was something we clung to like no tomorrow. I had tears racing down my face and my heart was pounding with pure happiness and disbelief. To have that sold to mostly teenagers (or for anyone really who thought it would be funny) as a joke kind of makes my heart hurt.”
She said she was so passionate about the product due to having first-hand experience in how difficult it can be to conceive and maintain a pregnancy.
“I only spoke up because I saw it was wrong. Right now there would be some sensitive men and women about as the government has proposed changes to IVF, making it even more expensive and harder to access, which makes this “joke” product all the more insensitive.”
When asked to comment, City Beach confirmed it is removing the product from all its stores.
In a statement to news.com.au, marketing manager Joshua Henry-Hicks said: “City Beach values all customer feedback. In light of the concerns raised on Facebook, we have decided to remove the ‘Prank Pregnancy Test’ from all of our stores effective immediately.
“It was never our intention to cause any offense and we apologise unreservedly for any distress the product may have generated for any of our customers.”
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