Jini Bakery have claimed to also be victims after they were accused of duping actor Gregory Charles Rivers into advertising for their company.
The store posted a letter addressed to the Australian Cantonese-speaking actor on their Facebook page on Thursday. Eric Chiang Yao-ming, chief of Jini Bakery, said they had paid Apple Daily HK$18,000 for the star to appear. However, a screenshot from Rivers appears to show he was promised only HK$2,000 in expenses.
至河國榮先生的信：（可能河先生的PM 信息太多而忽略了本人於今天下午送出的Facebook 訊息，至今仍未得到回覆，所以本人現於Facebook 公開此信。盼各方友好代為轉界）河先生你好，小弟蔣佑明，正是Jini Bakery 之負…
Posted by Jini Bakery Cookie on Thursday, 31 March 2016
In the post, which included screenshots of conversations with a newspaper staffer, Chiang said his company’s reputation “had been ruined completely” after netizens attacked their page with angry comments.
Posted by Jini Bakery Cookie on Thursday, 31 March 2016
Rivers said that he was contacted on Whatsapp by someone who said that Apple Daily wanted to interview him about cookies. However, when he got to the store, he was asked to pose for photographs with products which ended up in an advertorial feature. The newspaper employee involved was suspended from the newspaper.
Rivers has since said that the case has become complicated and should be handled by the police.
