The franchise Cookie Plug arrived in Indianapolis on Mass Ave in May of 2024, and via a disturbing news story raised quite a few red flags amongst our community.

The franchisee proceeded to cosplay what her perception of hip hop/black culture is in the segment while not understanding that cultural appropriation, especially in the pursuit of profit, is offensive and unacceptable.

When peering into the establishment it was discovered that the entire theme of it is based off of drug culture. Selling “bump sacks”, “dub sacks”, “xtc cookies”, “purple drink” etc to the community and labeling it as “hip hop culture” is egregious to the highest degree. Selling purple lemonade in double cups and baby bottles to mimic the use of promethazine and not understanding the effects it has had on it’s users is alarming and offensive to many people whose lives have been directly altered and affected by it. Selling miniature cookies out of containers designed to look like pill bottles is not hip hop culture; it is purposeful delusion with the goal of lining pockets.

This is triggering as it is promoting dangerous terminology to children without them having the knowledge of what the owners consider as “puns” to what they perceive to be “hip hop” culture, when in reality it is purely drug culture. Since the shops are claiming to be “hip hop” based, the community doesn’t understand why literally every item in the product lineup is some sort of drug reference.

Not only that, other locations have used mugshots and pictures of black men behind bars on their storefront artwork, t-shirts and other merchandise…which has no direct correlation with selling cookies and does not represent hip hop in the light the community believes it should be.

In the midst of the controversy it was then discovered that the founder of the franchise is an opportunist that has previously profited and still profits off of harmful things many find offensive.

At a Killeen, Tx location, a banana pudding was titled with a highly offensive slavery reference. The owners doubled down on the title which led to protests and eventually to the close of that location.

Not only is he the founder of Cookie Plug, but also Freedom Bowls and Conspiracy Cookies. Please do your research on said establishments to see how they not only are the exact opposite of black and hip hop culture, but are also used to profit in niche markets at the expense of tasteless dark humor and political stances.

The founder, Erik Martinez, has also directly disrespected, demeaned and disregarded local business owners of the Indianapolis community. The social media accounts of this establishment has also taken direct shots at another local business in the same niche. The franchisees of the Mass Ave have also doubled down stating that they are not concerned with the views of the general community, the hip hop community or the black community. They just want to “sell cookies”. At the expense of what?

To get a better understanding of the character of the founder reference the conversation below: https://youtu.be/D5u15-ntvDA?si=8bWIqNWH21rJqfCi

This petition is a demand for them to do one of two things: 

1. Remove all drug innuendos and subliminal messaging, and all the racists/stereotyping tropes from their menu and branding. 

2. Cease doing business.

 

”Don’t stand for nothing and you’ll fall for anything”

”They want our rhythm, but not our blues”