A Kiwi cake company, The Caker, has accused supermodel Chrissy Teigen of ripping off her business just months after the two collaborated.
In September Teigen's company 'Cravings' and The Caker combined forces to release a Spiced Carrot with Salted Caramel cake mix.
New Zealander Jordan Rondel owns The Caker, based in LA, and she posted on Instagram photos showing similarities between the packaging of her products and Teigen’s company ‘Cravings’.
The similarities include the photography style used, the writing on the box, as well as both companies having ‘You Will Need’ written above the required ingredients.
“Sooo this has happened,” she wrote in the caption. “Chrissy Teigen released her own line of elevated baking mixes right after we collaborated on a cake mix together… I have no issue with anyone releasing baking mixes, but I think you guys are right that this particular situation isn’t chill.”
Rondell also spoke to the NZ Herald about the matter, saying she thought Teigen’s team was just being lazy in their design, especially considering the resources available to them.
“With all their money and all their help, which I just don’t have, I think it would have taken the smallest amount of extra effort to make it look a bit different,” she said.
Now, two days after Rondell’s Instagram post and after lots of backlash on social media, Teigen’s team has responded.
Rolling Stone received a statement from a representative of Cravings, saying:
“Images posted on social media by The Caker team compared the front of our box and the back of their own. The front of their packaging is different from the photographic approach we took, with their design tending to be a solid, bold colour, which is actually a sleeve rather than the traditional box style we used.”
Rondel responded to these claims via her Instagram story, saying the differences Cravings points to are somewhat pedantic.
“[We] specifically designed our packaging to have neither a front or back… in fact a lot of our retailers display them like this! The photo side is totally the front if you want it to be!”
Cravings have not yet responded. We hope that justice can prevail here, in my opinion, the similarities are blatant and is an example of a much larger company ripping off a smaller, family-owned business.
