French Mayor Caroline Cayeux has had to apologize for misleading local residents with a prank message. She tweeted on April 1st that Ikea was going to open a store in the town, bringing 4,000 jobs and more convenient shopping opportunities for the locals. She didn’t forget to give herself credit for the imaginary achievement, stating “I fought for the many advantages of Beauvais and we won the battle! I am delighted.”
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Although the mayor revealed in the commentary section that the news was a prank right after the unfortunate Tweet and published a retraction several hours later, the incident spark outrage in social media. The users trashed Cayeux for what many perceived as her poor taste in humor and tone-defness as many of her fellow residents are unemployed.
What a joke! I’m leaving my city in a week because it’s impossible to find a job here…
My condolences to the locals of Beauvais, who have a mayor who is as funny and intelligent as a dead octopus.
However, the mayor deleted neither the original message, which she referred to as a “communication error”, nor the negative comments, instead replying to outraged users. Later she had to apologized on her Facebook page, saying she regrets making the announcement, which was painful for some people. She stated that she respected those looking for jobs too much to make them a laughing matter. The mayor claimed that she wanted to attract potential investors like Ikea with the unfortunate Tweet.
Later she also said to the outlet Parisien, that the joke “was not mean, it was mostly a nod to Ikea that we would like to see it happen in Beauvais. Except that many Beauvaisians have seen a promise of employment, and have not really appreciated the joke.” She also promised do better next year.