Enlarge image
Weco employees in Eitorf, North Rhine-Westphalia (archive photo): »All textual content has undergone extensive revision«
Photo: THILO SCHMUELGEN / REUTERS
The fireworks manufacturer Weco apologizes for misogynist slogans in the New Year's crackers it produces.
One regrets that the sayings have circulated and finds the content presented neither funny nor tasteful nor up-to-date, the manufacturer said at the request of the German Press Agency.
A tweet had previously caused a stir in which the musician Jan Delay was outraged by the supposed jokes on cracker notes and wrote that he was speechless at the misogyny.
Among other things, he posted a note that said: "When my wife starts singing, I always go out so the neighbors can see that I'm not hitting them."
Numerous other Twitter users then posted their own photos with similar cracker slogans and also expressed criticism.
"We hereby expressly apologize to anyone who feels offended or offended by the texts," the company statement said.
»We reject discrimination in any form!«
One had been confronted with “the same problem” five years ago, Weco continues.
At that time, “all textual content was extensively revised”.
Crackers with such content were no longer included in the production batches manufactured after that.
However, it could be that products from older production batches have only recently been sold to end users.
This is common, as fireworks do not have a sell-by date and production batches are never sold completely in just one year, but gradually over a longer period of time.
In 2020 and 2021 there were no fireworks sales in Germany due to the corona pandemic.
dab/dpa