LBC presenter James O’Brien told a joke about the Greggs’ sausage roll nativity, only to be told off by a disgruntled caller.
Mr O’Brien asked for listeners to call in if they were upset by an advert for Greggs’ advent calendar, which showed a sausage roll in a manger surrounded by the Three Wise Men.
One caller, called Marion, rang in to say she loves the story of the nativity and the baker’s advert left a bad taste in her mouth.
So O’Brien decided to try and change her mind with wordplay.
“Spell Jesus for me,” he told the listener. “Now say it backwards,” Mr O’Brien added.
Marion spelt out the letters in “susej” - which the host asks her to read out as a word.
“It’s a sausage!” Mr O’Brien exclaimed, after the listener interjected.
She went on to say she didn’t see the advert as a “joke” and felt it was in “very poor taste”.
Greggs has apologised for the ad campaign after numerous people pointed out the unusual take on the 2,000-year-old scene could cause offence, with some complaining that Jesus was Jewish and eating pork is forbidden in the Jewish faith.
After the image appeared online, social media user Beth Rosenberg tweeted: “Out of interest do you think the people at Greggs understand that Jesus was Jewish and serving up a pork sausage roll in the manger is unbelievably inappropriate?”
The sausage roll nativity photograph was one of a number of publicity shots for the advent calendar, including a Santa with pastry flakes in his beard and a Greggs shop in a snow globe.
Greggs said in a statement: “We’re really sorry to have caused any offence, this was never our intention.”
