Baker applauded for reply to PR company asking for 100 free cakes for celeb party and offering to pay in exposure
1 August 2023, 16:26
A baker has been praised for her response to a PR company asking for 100 free cakes for a celebrity client's birthday party.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Rebecca Severs, from Keighley in Yorkshire, sells cakes and provides baking classes through her Three Little Birds Bakery, which she founded seven years ago.
Ms Severs was recently contacted by a publicist who was organising a birthday party for an unnamed celebrity.
The PR asked Ms Severs for more than 100 free cakes - a birthday cake for the star, a smaller cake for her husband, and 100 cupcakes.
The theme of the party is "camp as t*ts".
The publicist offered no payment other than exposure, saying that "payment would be made in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700k followers", as well as being covered in a celebrity magazine.
"The party has a guest lists [sic] full of celebrities and industry from tv / film and music, so loads of work would come from it," the publicist added.
The baker turned the offer down, saying: "I'm so sorry to hear that your client has fallen on such hard times that they can't afford to pay small businesses for their services."
"Unfortunately, as my mortgage provider doesn't take payment 'in the form of promotion on their socials', and my staff can't feed their kids with exposure on Instagram, I'll have to decline your very generous offer."
Ms Severs later shared screenshots of the exchange on Facebook, writing: "This poor celebrity apparently can't afford to pay people for their products and services. Spare a thought! What happened to women supporting women."
She was met with resounding support for her response, with one person commenting: "Best response! Good for sticking to your guns!"
Meanwhile another added: 'Good for you!'
A third wrote: "Love it!"
A fourth commented: "Got yourself a new follower here, purely because this response is exactly the level of business like sarcasm I aspire to. Fab response."
Another person wrote: 'We have this a lot. Influencers are very frustrating and most expect everything for free.
"It happens more often than people know. Like you say, exposure doesn't pay the mortgage.'
Ms Severs later said the bakery had been threatened with legal action for the post.
Ironically, Ms Severs turning down 'payment in exposure' appears to have garnered a huge wave of interest and orders from the bakery.
Three Little Birds said on Tuesday: "We are getting a massive amount of phone calls, emails and messages as a result of the media coverage of the news story that is us refusing to work for [heart] emojis."
