Binky Felstead has been criticised by a bakery owner in London for seemingly asking for a free cake for her son Wilder’s third birthday in exchange for promotion on Instagram.
The 35-year-old Made In Chelsea star - who s hares Wilder with her husband Max Darnton - requested a “gifted” train cake for her toddler in return for an “Instagram post collaboration”.
The 44-year-old baker has previously expressed her fury over influencers requesting free cakes from her instead of paying.
Bennett even made a since-deleted fake GoFundMe page asking for donations of £1.4 million for Felstead’s train cake - a reference to the reality star’s Instagram follower count.
She initially redacted Felstead’s name in the emails with her team but ended up naming the star in a later post.
Beyond Chelsea star Felstead’s representative said: “This was a standard enquiry from Binky's PA, offering social media exposure in exchange for a birthday cake.
“Binky was not directly involved in these email exchanges, and is currently away on a family holiday.
We completely understand that this type of collaboration is not for everyone and respect the decision to decline.
Bennett deliberately ignored the attempts to get the cake for free, instead asking for their budget, post code and image references.
Felstead’s team pushed back, replying: “Thanks for your message.
Would you be interested in collaborating on the cake?
“As in the cake would be gifted in exchange for a story on [redacted]'s Instagram?”
Bennett replied: “I was really hoping [redacted] would have a budget for a cake.
It would really go far in restoring my faith in an industry so tainted by 'grifters’.
“Influencers, in general, have a terrible reputation for not wanting to pay for their cakes.
The optics are terrible as well - a 'rich' Made In Chelsea star gets a cake for free from a small family run bakery business.
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“What would actually make an incredible piece of positive press, possibly going viral - if [redacted] pays full price for the cake and I post about how an influencer actually pays for their cake.”
She added: “It would get her all the positive virtual vibes and the right kind of exposure, vs being yet another 'cake blagger'.”
Felstead’s team agreed that she had made a “valid point about optics” and said they would speak to the TV personality before coming back to her on whether they would pay.
Bennett said she had not received a reply.
She went on to post the exchanges on Instagram and make a spoof GoFundMe page for the cake, which she has since deleted.
She received a “disheartened” email from Felstead’s team after they saw her social media posts.
They insisted the “power of social media is huge” and they had never intended to “grab a free cake”.
”Binky's Instagram content is hugely focused around her children and she gets a lot of engagement from this sort of content so it can often have a very positive effect on businesses in terms of giving them exposure to audiences they may not be able to reach normally,” they wrote.
She is currently starring in the Made In Chelsea spin-off, Beyond Chelsea, alongside original castmates Lucy Watson and Rosie Fortescue.
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Source: This article was originally published by Evening Standard
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