It was viewed more than 100,000 times on that platform and another 50,000 times on Instagram, and the audience only seemed to expand. And the business grew.<\/p>\n
Cindy was recognised while out shopping. People started making long journeys just to taste their goods \u2013 including one man who drove from Adelaide.<\/p>\n
The bakery\u2019s young staff \u2013 mostly high school and university students \u2013 also got involved, hosting and appearing in videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of all the businesses I\u2019ve filmed for, they\u2019re the staff that are always the most friendly and most enthusiastic about being in social media,\u201d Lawrence says. \u201cThey honestly are, they\u2019re such good sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1664.jpg\")
The Australian bakery that went viral on TikTok for defending its staff from trolls \u2013\u00a0video<\/p>\n
Like in every social media fairytale, a darker side soon began to emerge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started getting racist comments, really inappropriate things said about my parents, and also some of the workers,\u201d Lawrence says.<\/p>\n
The negativity seemed to snowball.<\/p>\n
Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Some of the workers were subjected to sexual harassment, and strangers found their personal accounts. Lawrence says it was \u201calmost becoming an invasion of privacy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of [the staff], they weren\u2019t very happy about it,\u201d says his father, while piping spinach and ricotta filling on to a huge sheet of pastry. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when we started trying to think [about] what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Everybody realises too late\u2019<\/p>\n Social media strategist Meg Coffey says the quandaries that come with social media fame almost always catch businesses on the back foot.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody realises too late,\u201d Coffey says. \u201cThere are a lot of people that really do have good intentions, and think they\u2019re just making a fun TikTok or sharing what they do.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s other people that ruin it, because behind a screen, people feel that they can say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n People have travelled from as far as Adelaide to taste their products. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Coffey says as audiences increasingly reject high-production sponsored content in favour of things that are \u201ca little bit more raw and authentic\u201d, businesses using social media have responded. And the \u201cinfluencers that are the most effective\u201d are staff.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we have to provide a space that is safe for these people, especially if they\u2019re minors,\u201d Coffey says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to jump on those comments that are coming, and you have to jump on every single one. And you have to say, \u2018this isn\u2019t appropriate. We won\u2019t stand for it. And this is not how you should interact on social media\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Owner and baker Shaun Du prepares vegetarian sausage rolls. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Speaking generally, Coffey says appearing on social media shouldn\u2019t be a requirement for many jobs, and clear guardrails need to be in place if staff agree to participate.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has to be consent and there has to be communication,\u201d Coffey says. \u201cAnd then, ultimately, they also need to be rewarded for that effort.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n That reward could be as simple as giving staff movie tickets or taking them out to acknowledge their contribution.<\/p>\n The video that went viral<\/p>\n Initially, Lawrence decided to reply to the critical and offensive comments on the bakery\u2019s social channels \u2013 \u201cdeflecting the negativity in a friendly way \u2013 to sort of say, \u2018hey, this isn\u2019t OK\u2019 and but not make it super serious,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n As things escalated, he began blocking users and deleting comments, and in some cases turning them off. Shaun stayed back late to make sure younger staff were safely collected by their parents when their shifts finished.<\/p>\n University student Sena says staff have been supported as the bakery dealt with offensive comments about her colleagues. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Sena, 20, has been working at the bakery for more than three and has appeared in its videos, and says she has always felt valued by her bosses.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re always very grateful, and we were all really happy to be involved and share things we love about the bakery.\u201d<\/p>\n While she herself didn\u2019t experience much negativity, Sena knows some other staff were quite upset. But she says Shaun and Lawrence were \u201csuper supportive\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey asked us straight away, like, \u2018did you want us to take any videos down?\u2019 And even any weird comments, they were already being deleted or hidden,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThey asked us all individually as well, and made sure we were all comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n The bakery gained a strong following for the videos, which often show how their food is prepared. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Last month, they posted a video directly addressing the issue. In it, Shaun asks viewers to \u201cplease stop with the thirsty comments\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting a lot of creepy comments in our TikTok,\u201d he says in the video.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, it\u2019s been making some of our staff feel uncomfortable and unsafe. It\u2019s been harder for them to come to work. We just want to make sure that our staff feel safe and comfortable filming and go to work and go home from work.\u201d<\/p>\n It was this video that went viral.<\/p>\n It had 12.1m views on TikTok at the time of writing. It is the bakery\u2019s most-viewed post now by far. And it attracted a lot of support from audiences.<\/p>\n Montmorency Bakehouse. Photograph: Eugene Hyland\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cEngagement is engagement, and that really seems like the focus for the algorithm,\u201d Lawrence says.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure if it identifies what\u2019s good and what\u2019s not \u2026 I would say there\u2019s a part of me that is worried about the real human aspect of it \u2013 because these are real people in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n As far as Shaun is aware, the online negativity has not spilled over into the offline world \u2013 the opposite, in fact.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been having a lot of supporters, which is a good thing. I hope it will stay that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawrence Du knew instinctively that his parents\u2019 bakery had the potential to pop off on social media. 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