Bakery goes viral after PR company asks for 100 free cakes for celebrity birthday party

A bakery has gone viral after they were asked to provide more than 100 cakes for free, with payment being delivered in ‘social media promotion’.

Rebecca Severs owns Three Little Birds Bakery based in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

She was recently contacted by a PR company who were tasked with organising a 40th birthday party for an unnamed ‘well-known’ celebrity.

For the party, which is set to take place in Manchester, Rebecca was asked to bake a birthday cake for the celeb, a smaller cake for her husband and 100 cupcakes.

Three Little Birds Bakery / Facebook

According to the publicist, payment would be offered in the form of exposure rather than the traditional money, saying: “payment would be made in the form of promotion on their socials with over 700k followers”.

The bakery would also be covered in a popular celebrity magazine, with ‘all suppliers credited on these platforms’.

The publicist added: “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”.

Three Little Birds Bakery / Facebook

The baker, unsurprisingly, turned down the offer, 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.”

Rebecca shared screenshots of the exchange to the bakery’s 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.”

Three Little Birds Bakery / Facebook

The response was overwhelmingly supportive of the baker, with one person commenting: “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!”

Another said: “Got yourself a new follower here, purely because this response is exactly the level of business-like sarcasm I aspire to”.

A third added: “Best response! Good for sticking to your guns!”

Three Little Birds Bakery / Facebook

Rebecca followed up in a later post to say the bakery has now been threatened with legal action over the situation.

And, ironically, the whole incident has managed to gain Three Little Birds a LOT of social media exposure and interest on its own, with the bakery posting: “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.”

You can give them a follow on Facebook here to stay up to date and order some cakes.