EDMONTON- The co-owner of a trendy downtown diner says she’s upset with the way her restaurant is portrayed in a video advertisement for Kerry Diotte’s mayoral campaign and would like to see it removed from his website.
“It was offensive. It made me a little sick to my stomach, just because I was so worried about how people would perceive us,” said Rima Devitt, co-owner of Blue Plate Diner located at 101 Avenue and 104 Street.
Devitt says she was doing a customer a favour when he asked if they could use the diner to shoot a campaign video.
“He’s like ‘we’re shooting a video for a mayoral candidate and wanted to use that table over there. You have great natural light, it’s super-low budget and it’s basically going to be like a promotional clip on our website.'”
She told the man, who was one of Diotte’s volunteers, it would be fine as long as the restaurant’s name or logo weren’t attached to the video.
“We just wanted to be accommodating. I think the thing is, he was a customer… you know, you want to please your customers. I thought it would be sort of a neutral ad.”
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“I cringed. I felt sick to my stomach,” she said. “I had no idea how recognizable our restaurant would be. Anybody who’s ever been in the restaurant just knows that’s the Blue Plate Diner.”
Devitt believes the video portrays her restaurant as anti-arena, and says some customers believe the same.
“All of these comments started popping up on our twitter feed about how we support Kerry Diotte and how we are anti-arena and, you know, people saying they’re not going to come into the restaurant anymore or they might choose some place else to have brunch or dinner.”
Devitt says she’s tried contacting Diotte and his campaign office, in hopes of getting the video taken off his website, but she’s had no luck.
Diotte maintains he had permission to film inside the restaurant.
“I think it’s very unfortunate there are negative people out here in this city that have turned it around so much to basically make that restaurant feel badly about this, because it’s a great restaurant.
“They weren’t supporting anybody. They were just doing us a favour, letting us use their restaurant as a location,” Diotte explained. “It’s people making mischief.”
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And while he’s sympathetic, Diotte says the video will not be taken down.
“You can’t (take it down). You know what the Internet’s like, it’s out there, right. And there’s no reason to, at all.”
In hindsight, Devitt says she should have asked more questions and asked for a script before allowing the video to be filmed in her restaurant.
“I feel a little bullied and stepped on. And I feel a little embarrassed and I feel a little duped.”
With files from Jenna Bridges, Global News.
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