The pastry chain Cinnabon has apologized for a since-removed tweet that conflated the death of Carrie Fisher with its own baked goods.
“Our deleted tweet was genuinely meant as a tribute, but we shouldn’t have posted it,” the company tweeted Tuesday evening. “We are truly sorry.”
Cinnabon, which specializes in cinnamon rolls that have often been compared to the iconic hair buns of Fisher’s “Star Wars” character Princess Leia, had posted a profile drawing of Leia with one of its rolls in place of the bun. “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll have always have the best buns in the galaxy,” the text read. Fisher died Tuesday at age 60 after suffering a heart attack on a transatlantic flight days before.
Cinnabon had previously tweeted the image on May 4, which fans of the George Lucas science-fiction movie series began to consider “Star Wars Day” shortly after the original film was released in 1977.
Many on social media reacted strongly to the deleted tweet, with comments such as “So @cinnabon thinks death is a cool promotional tool” and, mimicking the idiosyncratic phrasing of the character Yoda, “off, you must log @Cinnabon.”
Even after the company expressed its regret, one Twitter commenter wrote, “@Cinnabon Try pinning the apology,” rather than allowing it to be pushed down the page as new tweets go atop. “That art took work, a marketing & social media pln. Either your CEO is in control or stupid, which is it?”
