Last week Krispy Kreme announced that they were giving away one free donut every day to people who came in with their covid vaccination card. It was a kind gesture and a nice way to help encourage and reward people for getting vaccinated. Only everyone didn’t agree. Of course idiot anti-vaxxers complained about not getting a free donut. In response Krispy Kreme said they would give away a free donut and a coffee to everyone on Mondays. Then there were the fat shamers and donut haters who said donuts are bad for you. Their CEO responded that they’re in the donut business and they were just trying to be nice, essentially. I really like the thoughtful way they responded to this and wanted to talk about it.
[Krispy Kreme’s] well-meaning (and literally sweet) incentive sparked some backlash on social media, with everyone from doctors to comedians pointing out that obesity — which is rampant in the U.S.— is also a prime risk category for the coronavirus. Additionally, there’s a history of big brands offering generous specials that end up becoming costly mistakes.
However, CEO Mike Tattersfield defended his company’s intentions in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. “We’re a sweet treat company, [and] if folks don’t want to visit a donut shop, they don’t have to.”
Rebutting the growing critique, Tattersfield added that if “folks that want to get a vaccine, if they decide to combine a Krispy Kreme pickup [for] a doughnut, they can. That’s how we look at it…. generosity.”
Last March, Krispy Kreme launched a similar initiative in response to the pandemic. It allowed all healthcare workers to receive a free dozen of its original glazed donut. Tattersfield says the initiatives have been well received by the community.
“I drop off a lot of doughnuts to the healthcare system. They’re very appreciative, given the days that they have to work…people are always looking for a little sweet treat break. It’s okay,” he said.
The article goes on to say that although the Krispy Kremes are franchises, the corporate headquarters picks up the tab for these giveaways. That’s excellent and I appreciate how they responded to the naysayers in a matter-of-fact and non-defensive way. I don’t particularly like donuts, I’m more into candy and ice cream and prefer my baked goods savory. This is great though and it’s also a nice way to celebrate getting vaccinated. Plus it’s excellent free publicity for Krispy Kreme. I got such a great impression of them after reading this and seeing their marketing head, Dave Skena, on The Today show. He said “Every single person who goes out and gets that vaccine brings us that much closer to a post-COVID America, which we’re really excited about. And so, if we can show our support with a little tasty treat, then that’s what we want to do.”
They seem like they’re a good company trying to thank people for getting the shot. They’re a donut company giving away their product. How is this a bad thing? It’s a freaking free donut, if you don’t like donuts don’t get one. I’m going to get a Krispy Kreme and tip damn generously once I have my double stamped card!
Here’s one of the ridiculous fat shaming tweets. There’s a whole thread, but I’ll spare you. A glazed Krispy Kreme donut has 190 calories. That’s like eating one regular Greek yogurt. You can have a damn treat when you want! It’s not hard to balance 200 extra calories. This is rude and judgey and I can’t believe she left this up. This is the doctor who was president of Planned Parenthood for less than a year and I’m beginning to understand why.
First, if someone indeed eats an Original Glazed #KrispyKreme donut every day as your offer provides, and changed no other aspects of their diet/exercise, they'd gain approximately 15 pounds by the end of 2021.
I'm sure that's not your intention. (2/4)https://t.co/220RPIkL2V
— Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) March 24, 2021
The Today Show’s report on this story ended with the line “in a nation so often split these days, even a donut can cause a divide.” This is so true!
I love doughnuts. Krispy Kremes arent my favorite doughnut, but they’re still good and if you get them when they’re hot and fresh – mmmmmm.
The nearest one to me is about 30 minutes away which is the only reason I havent taken advantage of this offer lol (well I still have my second dose to go, so I guess I cant take advantage of it yet, LOL, but even if I could, the distance is annoying.)
This is a nice gesture and people who are up in arms over a doughnut company giving away a free doughnut need a hobby. I “get” the concerns about obesity and encourage unhealthy eating or whatever but at the same time….the past year has been rough, lets all have a doughnut and smile and celebrate getting a little closer to the end.
This is nice, people have to try and ruin everything. I live in a city with amazing donut places and Krispy Kreme couldn’t gain a foothold here, they tried. The nearest one is over an hour away so I won’t get my free donut but the vaccine is reward enough.
This is why we can’t have nice things. I can’t even consider going into a donut shop at this point in my life, but I love the gesture. I’m tempted to bring my vax card and finagle a free cup of coffee, but I don’t trust myself to turn down a free donut fried in goodwill.
I’m not going to lie, I was kind of twisted up about the fact that I can’t get a free donut until the end of April; it just seems unfair to give things to people as incentive for them to get the vaccine, when a lot of people are actually prevented from getting the vaccine for a time. I don’t think this is the same as the people who never got student loans complaining about plans to erase them (which NEVER seems to actually happen), but maybe it is LOL. I just really love donuts! And I really want that shot!!
Can’t you just get your free donut on Mondays when they give them to everyone?
Which is why I said “was”
My point was that I think it is annoying to have incentive programs when we have people patiently waiting. If it is someone’s turn and they don’t want it, then let’s move on to those who do!
It’s just a free donut. Sometimes life isn’t fair and it’s kind of odd that you were against this because not everyone can get something all at once.
They’re like a dollar each. I’d hardly call that an incentive.
Some people are prevented from getting the vaccine….but some people are actively declining to get vaccinated (sadly, a lot of healthcare workers!).
I think they are trying to address 1 problem, not all the problems. They are using their limited ability to encourage people to get vaccinated, and that is not a bad thing.
That doctor seems stupid? If you are going to have a donut, she is assuming it’s added calories. In truth, most people will have it for breakfast, or for a snack they would have had anyway.
190 calorie breakfast? Not a big deal. A lot of people have coffee and a donut a couple of times a week already.
The high-horse medical community, especially those with FAT MSNBC-contracts, just love to hear themselves yapping. I don’t share their enthusiasm for the experience.
Exactly. Daily donuts for everyone is not what’s being advertised. I think it’s a cute gesture and really nice that corporate is taking the losses. They seriously didn’t have to do anything. I’ll probably tweet/comment a thank you for them to help out weight the buttheads complaining about something because they can never be happy.
Drives me crazy when people label food as bad or say it is causing obesity ect. It’s not the food sometimes but the mindset. This is all my personal opinion/experience and everyone differs but I feel like it’s very common based on my interaction with others with or without an ED. As many people have negative relationships with food.
I have a therapist working with me as I have had an eating disorder. She shared thoughts on this which are helping to change my mindset. people need to stop putting food on pedestals or considering them ‘bad’ or that oh I can’t have those foods in my house or I eat the whole bag.
The idea was this
I want to lose weight so I change my eating habits and have a list of foods that are off limits/‘bad’ -chips, chocolate, donuts
I do well at first but then a craving hits. I then eat a tonne of healthy foods- yogurt, fruit, vegetables but my craving isn’t satisfied and I’ve just eaten more calories/food then I should have which then triggers my disorder… instead my therapist says to eat the donut… obviously not all the time but it’s something we work to. It’s allowing myself to have a food if I want and have control over it rather it over me
Or another thing that would happen
I eventually cave to the craving and eat a whole box of donuts rather than just one and trigger my ED.
Now I give in to my cravings or if I want a specific food I eat it- without shame or guilt. It took a while to get here with lots of slip ups.
It has helped huge and it makes me mad a bit these doctors/Opinions are contributing negatively and is the reason people feel shame/guilt over eating a donut.
Yep, that’s it right there–there’s no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ to foods, there’s no ‘guilty’ foods or ‘cheat day’ foods. It’s just food.
What is that doctor talking about???? Krispy Kreme (which are my FAVORITE donuts. I like to get them freshly made & still warm) didnt say they were going to give each person free donuts for the rest of the year! They said ONE free donut! One! Take a chill pill, lady. Getting your panties all in a bunch like that is bad for your health 😉
You can get one every day. They are not tracking or defacing your documents.
That said, the doc’s comments are still asinine.
You gotta wonder about the doc’s reading comprehension skills. Although, you gotta wonder about what the doc thinks about a ‘baker’s dozen’. Usually that 13th whatever is free. Would she consider that encouraging people to overeat ‘bad’ foods?
But you know it’s the same naysayers who cry “personal responsibility” in other contexts.
The amount of think pieces and Twitter threads I’ve seen over donuts is insane! We’ve all been been stuck inside for a year, let ppl enjoy things.
I used to have to drive twenty minutes and cross a state line to get my Krispy Kreme donuts, which I craved during pregnancy. I appreciate this gesture toward incentivizing the vaccine! Some people are not happy unless they’re complaining about something.
I kinda get the resentment, especially from people who want the vaccine but haven’t had a chance to get it yet. I get a little irritated sometimes when I want to enter contests or claim free stuff but the entry requirement is to share something on social media and I don’t have any accounts- and I can’t even have a tantrum on social media about it! Seriously though, we have a lot of problems right now and everybody’s temper is on a short leash. Tread lightly y’all, there are some real sociopaths out there and a lot of them are armed.
Why on earth people complaint about this? It’s not like KC is shoving the donuts down people’s throats. And as they said if you don’t like donuts just don’t get it. I actually get a donut after I get a shot. I hate needles and I love donuts.
The vaccine age was lowered to 40 and over today so hopefully I can find a place to give me the vaccine. I’ve registered on the state site, they will text me when they have appointments for my age group. I’m definitely going to get it.
People will complain about anything.
My boss used to say that you could stand on a street corner giving out 20 dollar bills, and someone would ask why it wasn’t a 100 dollar bill.
It’s crazy to me!! Complains about a generous, well intentioned free gift!
I liked hearing Dr. Wen’s take on the virus during the early days of the pandemic, but not so much now.
She’s an ER doctor who landed “expert” gigs on two cable networks thanks to the pandemic. Let her manage her own daily caloric intake.
I seriously doubt that most people will be rolling through a Krispy Kreme every day, just to claim a doughnut. It would cost me more in gasoline to travel across town to claim one.
A lot of people are idiots.
This country won’t do anything about mass murders taking place every day but has time to complain about free donuts.
I personally needed no incentive at all, but if even one person gets vaccinated to get free donuts, great! Who cares if they gain 15 pounds (which isn’t even necessarily true anyways)? Better than them dying or taking up precious medical resources or infecting others (I know they potentially can, but it’s less likely than if they had no vaccination at all.)
Every person vaccinated gets us that much closer to beating this damn thing. Give people all the donuts they want and we can all mind our own diets!
Nobody’s getting obese being they ate one f*cking donut. Sit your faux-concern troll ass down, Leana. American obesity is a problem generated by a combination of food accessibility, income disparity, poverty, stress, and excessive work. Unless you’re addressing those problems, I do not want to hear it.
This x1000! This country excels at blaming individuals for systemic issues. I’ve read so many garbage takes in the last week blaming people for their pandemic weight gain.
All of this.
So well said, Veronica!!!!!!
I love Krispy Kreme. When I was a kid, my dad would wake me up at like 6am on Sundays to “sneak out” and get donuts right off the line. It’s such a cherished memory. Donuts are still my favorite, and Krispy Kreme is still my preferred brand. The nearest one to me is 2.5 hours away, and it’s devastating.
I will defend them giving donuts to vaccinated people until the day I die.
I’m getting my first shot tomorrow (happy dance!!!), and nowhere near a Krispy Kreme, but now I will have to ensure I go buy a donut, just because. (And given my experience with any sort of vaccination, I’ll probably spend the following day mainlining Gravol, so I might as well eat one while I still have an appetite.)
This is nice! Let the donut company do a nice thing in peace!
Imagine what kind of a world we would live in if people were this passionately outraged about things that actually mattered. Flint would have clean drinkable water, the US would have free healthcare, we’d have a colony on Mars and robots to fold everyone’s fitted sheets.
😂😂😂 sad, but true
LOL having one donut, even every day, is not going to make you gain a ton of weight. They’re not a lot of calories and are presumably replacing what you would’ve had for breakfast. I think what Krispy Kreme is doing is wonderful; we need to be doing everything we can to encourage people to get the shot.
It is a nice thing and it has been proven over and over again that here in the US we can’t have nice things. Sigh.
I like that they’re giving donuts to vaccination workers. I just got my J&J shot Sat and as I was chatting with a National Guard guy during the waiting period afterwards, telling him that the operation they were running was highly efficient, he said the only thing missing was coffee and donuts for the volunteers. Not sure if he was joking but it got me thinking that it wouldn’t be hard to have a volunteer hop in a golf cart (the vaccinations were done in a massive university hockey arena parking lot) and drive some treats around to the workers.
Somehow I’m reminded of the horrible Georgia law where you can’t bring food or drink to people standing in line to vote. Might they try such a law at vaccination centers? Would they be that reprehensible?
The irony is that obesity and obesity-related issues make you at a high risk of getting really sick and dying with Covid. Don’t eat donuts and other junk and exercise and most likely you won’t need need a vaccine!
…you need to be vaccinated regardless of your health status. People who are not vaccinated run the risk of becoming incubators for viral infections that can mutate and create more dangerous variants. You vaccinate healthy people specifically because they can be vectors for the disease that can spread to people who are more vulnerable. Herd immunity relies on the greater percentage of the population being incapable of hosting the virus long enough for it to reproduce enough to become contagious.
Uh, no. Everyone who can safely get the vaccine should do so.
Covid has killed young, fit, healthy people, especially some of the new variants.
It’s wonderful to eat well and exercise to the extent that we can! But it’s not a guarantee of perfect health or immunity to illness.
Veronica S. has aptly stated the reasons why we get vaccines both for our own protection and to protect others who may be more vulnerable. This is truly acting out of both self-interest and compassion, and is what I would call a win-win situation! 😀
‘Don’t eat donuts and other junk and exercise and most likely you won’t need need a vaccine!’
Lol what the hell?
Wow, worst take yet! On so many levels.
Get the vaccine. This is a highly infectious disease that can affect and kill people of varying health, age, and weight.
I do want a donut. There is a new Krispy Kreme store in my area and whenever I see the Krispy Kreme drive-thru lane by me it’s super long so I’ve never gotten one from there. Maybe after I get my vaccine I’ll also have a donut.
I agree that too many Americans are overweight and that that has contributed to the number of COVID deaths in our country, But like…I still want a donut and I think a donut once in a while or even once a week is ok.
No Krispy Kremes near me, the closest is an hour away both north and south. Here Dunkin’ Donuts reigns supreme (which makes sense as I am in New England and DD was founded in Massachusetts). But this is a nice incentive for customers and I may try to take advantage because in my googling I did find there are some in NYC which is about an hour away by train.
This is so weird to me. The things that get blown out of proportion these days. I remember when Crispy Cream first came to my city. It was the early 2000s. Everyone was so excited. Less than 20 years later and it’s a debate topic.
If that woman was my doctor I would find a new doctor. There are ways of addressing obesity concerns without shame and preaching. It’s not helpful. As a MD she should know that. Her tweets scream poor bedside manner.
Nice gesture meets idiots who don’t realize a person can make their own choices. To donut or not to donut…I can’t believe that IS the question.
I was getting a dozen Krispy Kreme’s a week last year when they were giving them out to frontline workers. Somehow, I didn’t get obese.
People really need to get over this mentality that in order to maintain a healthy weight, you have to eat completely clean. You should definitely eat a balanced diet, but in the end, calories in calories out is what matters.
I’m going to be honest, this is silly and speaks to the basic American mentality. Dangle a treat in front of people and give it to them when they do the trick. I hope we don’t start doing that here in Canada with Timbits, lol. I’m glad people are getting vaccinated, but can’t you just do it without the reward? The heightened immunity is the reward. Come on, folks. If you want a donut after, go get yourself one (or even two!) when you’re done.
All humans do better when they’re rewarded for it. We’re animals, after all. Apes. And I look forward to getting my donut. It’s pretty Puritanical — which is rather American — to tsk-tsk at people liking treats.
I wasn’t tsk-tsking their taste for treats. I said to have two if you want! I’m shaking my head at the way corporations treat people like toddlers, telling them that they’ll give them something good if they get the vaccine and the fact that people go along with it. I feel like, however well-intentioned, it’s kind of pointless. They say they’re doing it to encourage people to get the vaccine, but I think anyone who is signing up to get it ASAP doesn’t need an extra incentive in the first place and is probably not looking to be rewarded for doing the right thing. It’s the anti-vaxxers who need the extra push, and I doubt the offer of a donut is going to change their minds.
I was a little sad because I got my second shot late last night (my state is on a 24/7 schedule) and it was close to a Krispy Kreme but it was closed. The closest Krispy Kreme is about a 30-minute drive so it’s not really worth it to drive out there. Oh well.
And for the concern trolls, the number of people getting a donut every day during a pandemic is pretty slim and since corporate is picking up the tab and not the franchise, it won’t hurt the small business owner.
LOL it’s crazy to me how offended people have gotten! a) this seems nice and relatively harmless! b) no one is forcing anyone to eat a donut every day or even once if they don’t want to! c) what the f*ck else are they supposed to give away, their terrible coffee?? they don’t have a lot of options!
and d) i wish I still lived near a krispy kreme or i would’ve gone to one directly after my first shot this weekend!