People Can't Believe The Sign This Scottish Cafe Used To Sell Sandwiches

One of the time-honored ways in which small cafes and bistros advertise their daily specials is by using a chalkboard out on the sidewalk to entice passersby. One Scottish restaurant, however, may have gotten a lot more attention than they bargained for with a recent chalkboard advert. The Gordon Street Cafe, located in Edinburgh's city center, most likely does a brisk trade in breakfast sandwiches sold to people on their way to work, but business can always use a boost. Well, nothing draws attention like a good visual, and preferably a clever one, so as Edinburgh Live reports, they chose to adorn their sidewalk chalkboard with a rebus.

Instead of writing out bacon butty, the cafe instead drew a slice of bread along with a picture of a pig. They then repeated the process with a bread slice and a cartoon cow in order to indicate some type of beef sandwich. Alright, that sounds like nothing too unusual so far. Where they went off the deep end, though (and possibly violated a copyright or two, although admittedly we're not well-versed in the U.K. laws pertaining to such things) was in using some rather familiar-looking characters beloved of children everywhere.

Oh no, say it ain't so! Everyone's favorite cartoon pig made into a sandwich? Even the cartoon cow bore a strong resemblance to a character from another British kids' show, "The Magic Roundabout." Needless to say, that association between anthropomorphic animals and edible ones was not something that sat well with many British parents. While Edinburgh Live went with the angle of vegans being upset by the cafe's tasteless sign, it may have been more of an issue for non-vegans that had to have that awkward "what's in meat?" conversation a lot earlier than they'd hoped. 

Comments made to the outlet included words such as "horrid" and "insensitive," although one vegan pointed out that it's "going to make a lot of children question food." While they admitted that this wasn't necessarily such a bad thing, they nevertheless characterized the cafe's approach to the matter as "pretty sick." Another parent, possibly also a vegan or vegetarian, extended their empathy to those that didn't follow that diet. As they put it, "Even if you are not vegan or vegetarian that could be really upsetting. My kids would be absolutely traumatized if they saw that sign, it's really not funny." Nor is it really making us all that hungry for bacon or burgers ... But it was certainly attention-getting, so who knows, it might end up working out for the Gordon Street Cafe after all.