A Twitter user pranked Jersey Mike’s Subs pretty good Tuesday night, but the subject matter was a bit distasteful.
Twitter user Yassir Lester posted a photo of an apparent statement from Jersey Mike’s.
The statement claimed the company would change its BLT sandwich into a “BLM” sandwich, dropping the “to” from “tomato.”
Literally what is jersey Mike’s doing. pic.twitter.com/9XohWNOa4n
— Yassir Lester (@Yassir_Lester) July 1, 2020
The franchise fast-food restaurant, which has over 2,000 locations across the United States, seemed to announce that they would change the name of their BLT sandwich to BLM because “Black Lives Matter.”
The statement read: “We here at Jersey Mike’s are always striving for greatness. With our sandwiches, but also in our community. We have listened to the larger cultural conversation and have decided that effective tomorrow, July 1, our famous BLT: Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich, will now be known as the BLM: Bacon, Lettuce, and ‘Mato sandwich.”
Jersey Mike’s, which has around 84,000 followers on Twitter, did not tweet this tone deaf BLM statement.
Yassir admitted he made it up.
“Jersey Mike’s didn’t say this, no. But a lot of corporations have come close,” Lester said. “They’ve all promised money to ‘the community’ yet we have no idea where any of it is going. We need to divest from police and invest in an infrastructure that keeps Black and other marginalized groups terrorized by law enforcement safe and accountable.”
Despite admitting guilt for the prank, there was no apology offered.
The most recent real social media post on Jersey Mike’s on Instagram was about celebrating Graduation Day.
Their latest real tweet was congratulating their 2020 Sub Abover Grant Recipients.
As stated on their website, “Jersey Mike’s presented the five $5,000 grants to those making a difference in their local communities. The grants are designed to help the winners make an even bigger impact. This is the third year that the company has presented the grants.”
Jersey Mike’s has not yet released a statement on the phony BLM statement.
On April 25 and April 26, Jersey Mike’s announced they would donate 20% of their sales to Feeding America, with a minimum donation of at least $1 million.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Feeding America, Katie Fitzgerald, said in a statement: “School closures and rising unemployment due to shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders has disproportionately impacted people already at risk of hunger. We are grateful for Jersey Mike’s generous support of food banks that are in communities helping people who struggle with hunger. This donation will help our member food banks provide more meals to people who need them most.”