Greggs have apologised for “causing offence” by replacing the baby Jesus with a sausage roll in a nativity scene which intended to promote its new advent calendar.
The bakery chain featured the image in its campaign for the new calendar, which is set to go on sale across its outlets from Monday (November 20). Each door of the calendar features a tear-off token that can be taken into Greggs’ shops and exchanged for an item off the menu every day.
IT'S ALL GOING TO BE OKAY, FOLKS. @GreggsOfficial has launched Advent Calendar. £24. Each door reveals token to redeem coffee/sausage roll etc pic.twitter.com/Q5a4SBBIyS
— Harry Wallop (@hwallop) November 13, 2017
However, Greggs have been forced to apologise after one of the images used to promote the calendar drew criticism from some members of the public.
Depicting the nativity scene, the photo in question replaced the baby Jesus with a half-eaten sausage roll – see the image in question below.
Greggs forced to apologise after PR shots promoting advent calendar replace baby Jesus with a SAUSAGE ROLL pic.twitter.com/q0qwd4ISxh
— Andrew Bloch (@AndrewBloch) November 15, 2017
Today on What Cheered Natalie Up A Bit: Man gets angry at local newspaper because they photoshop a sausage roll over baby jesus pic.twitter.com/kt0mLSIIdQ
— Natalie ? (@nataliejtayls) November 13, 2017
A spokesman for Greggs told Digital Spy in a statement that the bakery was sorry to have caused offence with the image.
“We’re really sorry to have caused any offence, this was never our intention.”