Honestbee’s exotic meats sale: an April Fools’ prank gone wrong?

April Fools’ is supposed to be a day of harmless fun and laughter, but some might have just gone too far.

Take Singaporean online grocery retailer Honestbee. The company has drawn flak on social media for an ad it sent out about the sale of exotic meats on its website. Minke whale meat, tiger’s tail, koala sausages, komodo dragon egg, panda breast meat – name the stuff that would make conservationists angry, it’s there.

On March 30, the grocer asked its users to “sink your teeth” into the meats supposedly from Explorer Joe Exotic Meats (the website is apparently fake) and place orders until March 31. It said deliveries would be made on April 1.

Common sense would tell you it was probably an April Fools’ prank – but one that netizens found “distasteful,” “absolutely revolting,” and “in poor, poor taste.”

Some people threatened to boycott the company and called on others to do the same.

But Honestbee later revealed the whole thing was a campaign to raise awareness on illegal wildlife trade, and that all sales of Explorer Joe Exotic Meats will be donated to conservation organizations to support their cause.

People threatened to boycott the company – and called on others to do the same.

“Yesterday, you awoke to an email update about Honestbee partnering with Explorer Joe Exotic Meats store. This store featured a variety of different endangered species like pandas, tigers, and whales seemingly packaged for consumption.”

“The idea that these animals that are on the brink of extinction and yet readily available was probably disturbing to all because even all of us here at Honestbee were similarly upset. It was always our intention to drive deep meaningful conversations around this subject,” the company explains in a mailer.

Honestbee’s spokesman Shane Chiang was quoted by Today as saying that they made the campaign “on the backdrop of April Fools’ Day, and rather [than] another meaningless prank or joke, we wanted to create something that is meaningful.”

He said they knew there would be a backlash, but it was what they wanted. He said it must be “controversial enough” to take the conversation further.