Burger chain removes 'peeping tom' sign

  • 07/10/2018
Velvet Burger
The sign. Photo credit: Zandri Clarke-Spies/Facebook

An Auckland burger store has taken down a toilet sign that showed a male stick figure peeping over the top of a wall at a female.

The sign was in Velvet Burger's Fort St store, NZME reports, and meant to indicate the three stalls were unisex.

It was removed after a Facebook post by a peeping tom victim called the store out.

"I found it a little unfortunate [the sign] is hanging on the door of a 'forward thinking' brand that caters to a woke millennial market," Zandri Clarke-Spies wrote.

"Subtle odes to the current problem we're facing with sexual assault and abusive undercurrents in the media should be enough to focus brands towards being more aware."

When she was 10, Ms Clarke-Spies said a "sick f**k" photographed her naked in a changing room. He was later caught with "hundreds of other videos of girls as young as seven naked and vulnerable" that he was spreading online.

"Remove it please, for the sake of f**king decency," she wrote.

Velvet Burger general manager James Arnott told NZME the sign was removed immediately, after the Facebook post spurred complaints.

"It's just one of those little pieces of branding that at one stage was tongue in cheek but probably not appropriate," he said. " That's not up to our standards… It's good that she's pointed it out."

In 2012, Velvet Burger caused outrage when it made fun of Rihanna's beatings at the hands of Chris Brown.

Earlier this year, a Velvet Burger on Federal St was given a D-grade food safety rating.

Newshub.