It was Feb. 3, 2022, when Chiaro’s Pizza, Sellersville, had to fess up to accidentally issuing an ad that contained an unintended image in a stock cappuccino photograph. WMMR’s Marisa Magnatta originally uncovered the story.

The ad appeared in Community Connection Monthly, a direct-mailer magazine that presents local businesses stories, community events, and resident profiles.

Chiaro’s, which also has a Skippack location, is a regular advertiser, buying ads that show its award-winning pies, smiling servers, and extensive sides.

The latest issue contains a shot of a dessert accompanied by a cappuccino whose foam has been swirled to create an image, a common serving perk.

Except that this image is of a nude man, Wardy Joubert III, a now-deceased semi-pro football player who took part in an adult photoshoot when he hit financial difficulties.

Both the pizzeria and the ad’s printer are mortified. Neither can quite explain how the accident happened, but both have deeply apologized for it.

Chiaro’s statement read in part: Neither us, nor the Community Connections’ proofreaders, [nor the printer’s proofreaders] caught the subtle nature of what we thought was a tasteful photo… . We are working on making sure this does not happen again. We deeply apologize for letting this slip by.

The WMMR report also included a call for support of Chiaro’s Pizza. As a small business, the story inferred, it faces enough challenges just resulting from the pandemic.

Thus far, public comment on social media shows a general willingness to laugh off the incident as a rare mistake.

In the year since, Chiaro’s seem none the worse for the wear.

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Here’s the original WMMR’s Preston & Steve discussion on the inappropriate ad.

The MONTCO.Today coverage of this advertising mishap appeared originally on Feb. 20, 2022.