Paula Deen Fans Mail Butter Wrappers To Retailers In Protest


Paula Deen fans are mailing butter wrappers to retailers as a way of protesting the companies and networks that have dropped the butter-using Deen.

The 66-year-old American celebrity chef, author, and former cooking show host fell into a dicey controversy recently over using a racial epithet.

During a legal deposition Paula Deen admitted to using the “N-word.”

The backlash has since crumbled her culinary cookie-cutter corporate image.

As a result of the negative press and outcry that followed, Food Network announced it would not renew Paula Deen’s contract once it expired. On June 24, 2013, Smithfield Foods dropped her as a spokeswoman.

Walmart, Target, QVC, Caesars Entertainment, Home Depot, the diabetes drug-company Novo Nordisk, J.C. Penney, Sears, and K-Mart followed suit – terminating or suspending endorsement deals.

Although several companies have expressed their intent to continue their endorsement deals with Paula Deen, the butter queen seems to be losing ever more opportunities to recover.

Within a week of issuing a public apology, her new book, Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up, surged to the top spot on Amazon’s best-sellers list.

Regardless, Deen’s publisher, Ballantine Books, canceled their pending book deal.

Many people have shared their polarized opinions of Paula Deen and the racially heated debacle she’s found herself in.

Former President Jimmy Carter urged that Paula Deen be forgiven during an interview with CNN, stating:

“I think she has been punished, perhaps overly severely, for her honesty in admitting it and for the use of the word in the distant past. She’s apologized profusely.”

Comedian Wanda Sykes appeared recently on Kathie Lee and Hoda (Today), during which she said, “She [Paula Deen] said she’s only said the N-word once, but now that she’s lost her whole empire, I’m pretty sure she’s saying it a lot more.”

Later the comic added, “I feel bad for her, I do.”

Now, a campaign dubbed “Butter for Paula” is encouraging Paula Deen supporters to mail cleaned and folded butter wrappers to companies like Food Network, Home Depot and Walgreens, reports Today.

Paula Deen is well-known for her not-so-heart-healthy but tasty, butter-rich southern cooking style.

Therefore, her fans are mailing retailers butter wrappers. This protests their decisions to sever ties with the celebrity chef.

The butter wrappers symbolize that Paula Deen’s supporters are sticking with her because “A company without Paula is like a wrapper without butter,” according to the group’s website.

Butter for Paula was organized by John Schmitt, a hotel auditor in Indianapolis. Schmitt also started a Facebook page called “We support Paula Deen,” which currently has over 600,000 likes.

How do you feel about the controversy surrounding Paula Deen? Do you feel she should be forgiven? Or suffer the consequences of her past actions?

[Image via Shutterstock]

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