Just because something may be true doesn’t always mean that it’s the right time to bring it up, and this fact has never been on more full display than in this major messaging fail by a well-known culinary brand: La Choy is claiming that a recently drowned boy “wouldn’t have drowned if the pool had been filled with chow mein noodles.”
Damn, La Choy. While this may be technically correct, let this family grieve a little first.
The makers of popular Asian-inspired ingredients and sauces waded into questionable territory today when their website’s front page showcased a link to a news article about a 9-year-old boy in Arkansas who had recently drowned in his family pool underneath the caption, “Such a needless death. He would still be alive if that pool had been filled with La Choy chow mein noodles.”
Internet users on the r/homecooking subreddit immediately started calling out the brand, with one user saying, “Imagine having your child drown only to wake up to a mass market Asian foods brand lowkey blaming you for not filling your pool with chow mein noodles,” with another user agreeing that, “This is so tone deaf. They could have pointed out that noodles are safer than water without referencing this specific death.” While most users are in the camp that La Choy is acting completely inappropriately here, a handful of commenters did say things like, “They aren’t wrong,” and, “Sometimes the truth hurts.”
Oof, La Choy. No matter how valid of a point you’re making, this is not a good look.
So far, it doesn’t look like La Choy has gotten the message that this was a pretty big PR misstep, as at the time of publication their post is still the first thing you see when you visit their website. Look, La Choy, we’re all for fact-based, common sense thinking, but this is one case where perhaps you could have kept the truth to yourselves.
