Justice

This Cocktail Idea Was So Problematic It's Already Been Cancelled

May 22nd 2017

When a pop-up bar announced a new drink on Monday called "The Pill Cosby," complete with floating empty pill capsules, the outrage was swift.

And just as swift was the bar's reaction — they have canceled their cocktail, the Washingtonian reports.

Diet Starts Monday, the pop-up shop in D.C., received a lot of backlash for promoting their new cocktail, The Pill Cosby.

In case you've managed to miss the reference, the drink refers to actor/comedian Bill Cosby who is facing trial for allegations of sexual assault. At least 60 women have come forward to allege rape or sexual abuse, with many of them alleging Cosby drugged them with pills. For this particular upcoming trial, Cosby will face allegations of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman named Andrea Constand.

Vanity Fair reported on Constand's allegations in Aug. 2016, writing:

"After pouring her a glass of wine, she said, Cosby went upstairs and returned with what he called 'three friends,' three blue pills which, he said, 'will make you feel good. The blue things will take the edge off.'

She told the police Cosby told her the pills were "herbal." She said that she struggled to stay awake, and alleged Cosby penetrated her with his fingers as she passed out, telling police, "I was unable to move my body. I was pretty much frozen."

Davin Gentry, the co-founder of Diet Starts Monday, told The Washingtonian the drink was conceived to bring "awareness" to the issue of women who are drugged saying, "it lets people be a little more aware."

A few hours after the Washingtonian's initial report, they followed-up that the drink had been pulled from the menu.

"Following the publication of this article, Diet Starts Monday apologized and announced it would remove the 'Pill Cosby' from its menu," they reported in an update on the original story.

In their follow-up, the Washingtonian also posted now-deleted tweets of the pop-up's apologies.

apologiesThe Washingtonian/Twitter - washingtonian.com

We reached out to ask Diet Starts Monday why they pulled these tweets, to which they responded:

Here is their updated apology tweet that reads "We messed up. We're extremely sorry" and attaches an image of the text of a longer apology:

Their latest apology reads "we take full responsibility and apologize to anyone who was offended" and "we in no way intended to make light of the pain surrounding [Bill Cosby's] behavior" and "we're working to do better."

ATTN: reported in Sept. 2016 on Cosby's pretrial hearing, which included a motion to enter the testimonies of 13 of Cosby's alleged victims. The motion read:

"During the course of this case, the Commonwealth investigated nearly 50 women allegedly victimized by defendant. What became clear was that defendant has engaged, over the course of his lifetime, in a pattern of serial sexual abuse.

An individual who, over the course of decades, intoxicates women in a singular fashion with the intention of sexually assaulting them cannot be mistaken about whether or not those women are consenting to the sexual abuse. And that is because the answer is so clear: they are not."

Of their cocktail, Gentry originally told The Washingtonian, "we took it at first as a funny name."

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