Cinnabon deletes Princess Leia tweet with ‘buns’ joke after negative reaction

LOS ANGELES — While the world mourned the passing of Carrie Fisher on Tuesday, Cinnabon saw an opportunity to promote its brand.

The mall-based pastry chain tweeted a photo of a cinnamon portrait of Princess Leia, with her infamous coiled bun represented by a cinnamon roll. The caption: “RIP Carrie Fisher, you’ll always have the best buns in the galaxy.”

Reaction was swift and negative:

“Never, never use a death to promote your brand. Poor taste,” tweeted Paul Henning.

The tweet was deleted in less than an hour.

The company used the same image back on May 4, when it tweeted using the hashtag #MayThe4thBeWithYou. Back then, the caption read: “Here’s to the princess with the second-best rolls in the galaxy.”

This isn’t the first time a company has faced backlash over a tweet.

In December 2014, Best Buy posted a message trying to capitalize on the popular Serial podcast, which examined the death of a teen girl outside one of the electronic retailers.

The now-deleted tweet read, “We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial.” (Prosecutors said the murdered made a call from a payphone outside the store after strangling the girl.)

Outraged users accused the company of capitalizing upon a death, and the tweet was pulled. Best Buy apologized for the tweet, saying “it lacked good judgment and doesn’t reflect the values of our company.”

So far, no public apology from Cinnabon about their Princess Leia tweet.