Photo credit: Judgefloro This time last month, BreadTalk launched a new bun called 李不开你 (Can’t Leave You) to commemorate the founding father of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, upon his passing. Within an hour, the campaign sparked outrage among Singaporeans even though its sales proceeds were being donated to charity. Whose idea was it? And more importantly, did it have any long-term negative impact on the company’s brand and sales? When this issue was raised at BreadTalk’s most recent annual general meeting yesterday at the company’s international headquarters, Chairman George Quek addressed the question in Mandarin:

“I grew up here in Singapore and I’m just an ordinary guy from a poor family. Mr Lee gave all of us, including me, a good opportunity to live and prosper in Singapore where he devoted his whole life to building up the nation.”

For a while, he paused… The room was in ......