The gingas strike back

David Fisher reports:

A ginger beer maker whose advertising offered to swap a ginger child for the drink has apologised for offending people, and has asked for police help given the strength of the criticism.

Nothing more scary than an angry ginga. Yes, I do mean you Belinda.

The public backlash left Hakanoa Ginger Beer maker Rebekah Hay frightened and in tears.

“I’m sorry I offended people. It was the reason behind the campaign that made us say yes. I wouldn’t have done it if it was just a joke.”

She revealed that she only agreed to the campaign after a marketing manager, Dave King, came to her with the idea after his ginger-haired son had been bullied.

“He’s a really sweet kid,” said Mr King of his 8-year-old son who lost his school bag to four bullies. The contents were tipped to the ground and the bag thrown over a fence after jibes about his ginger hair. “When I told people about it, they said ‘that’s what you get for being ginger’.”

The reaction angered Mr King and he wanted to do something about it. He dreamed up the campaign and told his staff to find a ginger beer company that could be used as a vehicle.

So the campaign was actually to raise awareness of ginga bullying.

For the record any bullying of any kid for any reason is bad, and reflects more on the bully than the recipient.  Adult humour and school age bullying should not be conflated.

Quite a few of my friends hassle me because I have Jewish heritage. I’ve got no problem with that, and I hassle them back in turn on whatever basis I can find. If however a kid got bullied at school for being Jewish, that would be bad and wrong – but it would not be because of adult humour.