Wegmans Fired Alec Baldwin Over Airline Incident

Upstate big-box grocery chain Wegmans is none too pleased with native son Alec Baldwin's little Words With Friends-fueled airplane tantrum—due to customer complaints stemming from the outburst, they've dropped the commercials featuring Baldwin hawking the store. And oh, such great commercials they were!

Baldwin was enlisted for a pair of two slightly surreal, low-budget ads after he appeared on Letterman with a story about how much his mother loves the store. Check them out:

It didn't take much for Wegmans to pull the plug on the ads post-tantrum: "We did get customer complaints because it was all timed with the incidents," said spokeswoman Jo Natale. "We always listen to customers. We didn’t get hundreds of complaints, but a few dozen." Mediate is devastated, writing "I can’t believe Baldwin’s heartfelt ad had to come down because a few people were upset he was kicked off a plane. Everyone makes mistakes; come on, Wegmans, please reconsider." In the meantime, SNL writers were frantically scrambling to prepare for yet another Baldwin cameo to address the issue.

UPDATE 12:20 p.m.: Wegmans has apparently had a change of heart, after all, releasing the following statement: "We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints. We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately. Clearly, many more people support Alec, as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails, and phone calls we have received. We enjoyed working with Alec Baldwin and his mom, Carol, and would do it again. We appreciate all the kind things they have said about Wegmans and respect the good work they do for communities.”

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By Jamie Feldmar in Food on January 4, 2012 11:20 AM

Comments [rss]

JAB84

"Mediaite." Not "Mediate."

Chris Jones

WTF is Wegman's?

Kim Hurley

The greatest grocery store on the planet.

BeeBee

I live in Northern Virginia, and we have a couple of Wegmans stores here. I have never seen ANY ads for the stores here because they aren't needed -- they are always packed with customers. I really hate to shop anywhere else.

oregano12345

i was going to stop shopping at Wegmans until i read the update. alec is the essence of the alpha male, something that is sorely missing in today's world.

choosler

There is no apostrophe in Wegmans!

Love,
A born-and-raised Upstate NYer

Detex

I like what they did here. Stop the ADs, get everyone upset... Start them up and now we are all talking about it!

advertising genius!

estragon_nyc

Restoring the ads so quickly is almost as bad as dropping them. We're living in a time of instant complaints and e-mail campaigns and manufactured automatic outrage. Anyone who wants to run a business needs to have a spine and make decisions they're prepared to stand by -- not automatically cave in at the first crank messages that come along. These meaningless two-faced non-apologies just convey the impression of passive gutlessness. If you're going to live your whole life terrified that somewhere, some person might send you a complaint, and want to avoid any controversy whatsoever...stay out of any business that involves dealing with customers. It's obviously too fraught with danger for your timid sensibilities.

Len_Drexler

If I were a bit more cynical I would think Wegman's did this intentionally because look! People are talking about Wegman's. And it didn't cost them anything extra.

Politburo

I'm pretty sure that was the plan. I should have posted my comment when I originally read the story, as I was going to say that I wouldn't be surprised if they change their mind (though I expected at least a day to go by).

randomtransplant

They're like the number one grocer in the country or something like that. I don't think they need to manufacture demand.

seattlesnow

Brooklyn needs a Wegmans

Guest

So, Wegman's just wasted money paying Alec for commercials all because a few dozen had problems with his, non-related, behavior? Dumb asses!

In today's day and age where lightning fast communications reach more people than ever, overreaction is the norm.