In a cake shop in Rio de Janeiro, Neusa waits patiently to buy a penis-shaped chocolate cake.
Since its opening last month in the Ipanema district, “La Putaria” (The Whore) has attracted both many customers curious about its erotic sweets and complaints from the neighborhood, who seized the authorities.
This week, the Justice Ministry’s consumer watchdog ordered the country to suspend the sale to minors of “products that mimic the shape of sexual organs and/or body parts in a sexual manner. , erotic or pornographic”.
In fact, the shop was already refusing to sell its cakes — waffles — to minors. But she was also ordered to hide her sign, which she covered with pink panels, the color of the establishment.
“It surprised me a lot,” said Brazilian Juliana Lopes, head of the brand’s franchise, which, before Rio, had opened a store in Lisbon and another in Belo Horizonte, in the south -eastern Brazil.
“I knew it wasn’t going to please some people, but I never imagined it would come to this,” she said.
In the store, customers are greeted with rather explicit messages lit on the walls by neon lights, such as “Tastier than your ex’s.”
While giggling and immortalizing this atypical stall for Instagram, customers must choose the flavor and shape of their cake: penis or vulva.
“I don’t agree (with the ministerial decision), Neusa, a middle-aged woman she met with a phallic-shaped cake in her hand, told AFP. “It’s a business like any other, it’s a game. I think it’s great!”.
The Ministry of Justice decided to intervene after being seized by the Association of Residents and Friends of Ipanema (AMAI-Ipanema) and the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Rio.
