A Vancouver bakery owner is calling out a former NBA player and his wife following an apparent request for a birthday cake in exchange for social media exposure. Fanny Lam, the owner of Oh Sweet Day! bakery, said she received an email last Friday from someone claiming to be an assistant for Metta Sandiford-Artest—formerly known as Metta World Peace, and before that Ron Artest—and his wife Maya. The email pitched a “collaboration,” asking for a custom cake for the couple’s son’s upcoming birthday in neighbouring Richmond, while noting the family has a strong social media following and would be sharing the celebration across their platforms. “We felt particularly frustrated because of the imbalance,” Lam said. “A small business like us being asked to custom make something out of pocket for somebody who is considerably more financially successful to take it for free.” Lam said the cake would have cost around $200 to $300 to make. “We know enough to tell that there is never the intention to pay,” she added. Oh Sweet Day! wasn’t the only Commercial Drive business to be contacted. La Grotta del Formaggio shared the same email with CTV News, and said they did not follow up with the initial request. Law said she receives emails like this almost daily from influencers, celebrities and corporations. “We don’t really expect the people who send out these requests to understand the economics of running a bakery,” she said. “However, I do believe there is a worthwhile conversation of why small businesses like us, who don’t normally have the resources to spare, are so often expected to provide free products to someone or some organizations who can definitely afford to pay for them.” No apology, Lam says After Lam posted about the incident on the bakery’s Instagram account, she said Maya reached out, but the response fell short of what she was hoping for. “There was no apology, no acknowledgment about how inappropriate the request was,” Lam said. “All they could say was the email was sent out by an assistant, without their knowledge.” CTV News reached out to the couple, and their management group but did not hear back. James Wang, a marketing professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, said exchanges like this are common in influencer culture, but they need to work in the business’s favour. “It again depends on the number of followers,” Wang said. “So to combat this, the businesses should reply and say, ‘I would like to have this in return for this.’ So there’s a business transaction going on.” While free publicity can provide a boost to a small business, Wang noted that owners should also be wary about influencer accounts that may have purchased artificial followers to boost their numbers. “So you’re not paying for the full number of followers, you’re paying for 60 per cent of those followers,” he said. Artest is well acquainted with B.C. His wife is from Vancouver Island, and he even stopped by CTV News Vancouver in 2012 to deliver an impromptu weather forecast.
