A NSW pub has removed signs which appeared to parody anti-sexual harassment signs sometimes found in women's bathrooms that encourage women to let staff know if they feel unsafe on a date after management received complaints.
The Crown & Anchor Hotel in Newcastle told Fairfax Media it has removed signs from its men's bathrooms which encouraged men to order a "Blue Crown Cocktail" if their date would not "stop talking about herself" so they could be escorted away from the venue.
The signs appeared to be direct parodies of recent women's safety initiatives in pubs, which see signs placed in the women's bathrooms to let women know they can tell bar staff, sometimes through ordering a secret drink, if they are feeling uncomfortable or threatened on a date, and be helped out of the situation.
"Blokes... Are you: a) On a Tinder date and she looks nothing like her photo or her description? b) On a blind date and it's going horribly wrong? c) On a first date and she won't stop talking about herself? Never fear, The Crown & Anchor are here to help," the signs read.
The signs went on to give men a series of "Blue Crown Cocktail" code-word drinks they could order at the bar to instruct staff to take actions ranging from escorting them to their car, to calling the police.
In a statement to Fairfax Media, management at the Crown & Anchor Hotel said the signs were put up last month but had been taken down after a "small number of complaints".
Fairfax Media understands multiple people contacted the pub to complain about the controversial signs after a picture was posted in a 32,000-person Facebook group for Melbourne bartenders.
The Crown & Anchor Hotel told Fairfax Media the signs were "not intended to be disrespectful in any way towards campaigns that promote sexual violence awareness and personal safety".
They said they also had signs in the women's bathrooms, which were more in line with other anti-sexual harassment initiatives in pubs.
A picture provided by management of the women's bathroom signs showed they bore the same copy, except the line about a date "talking about herself" was replaced with "c) On a first date and they're getting their creep on?".
Both sets of signs were removed this morning and will be re-worded.
Over the past year, more pubs have started to place signs in their women's bathrooms, letting patrons know they can ask staff for help if they find themselves in an unsafe situation.
The first reported use of the technique was at The Brickyard, a now-closed cocktail bar in St Albans, north of London.
"Tinder date gone wrong?" read signs put up in the bar's toilets in April 2016. "If anyone is bothering you or making you feel uncomfortable, please tell us. We will discreetly move them away and, if necessary, ask them to leave."
In October last year, a Lincolnshire county council's cubicle door poster which asked women to "ask for Angela" at a bar if they felt unsafe on a date was widely shared on social media.
There have also been reports of bars in countries from South Africa to Canada letting their female patrons know they can order an "angel shot" to alert staff that they want to leave a date.
After being well publicised overseas, the technique has caught on in a number of Australian pubs.
At the Courthouse Hotel in Sydney's Newtown, signs in the women's bathrooms encourage patrons to speak to someone who works at the pub for help if they don't feel safe and want to leave the venue.
"Feeling uncomfortable? Receiving unwanted attention? On a bad Tinder date with someone who isn't who they made themselves out to be? The Courty isn't down for creepy behaviour so whatever the situation may be, ask the bar staff or security guards for a manager and we will help you out of this situation discreetly and effectively without causing a fuss," the signs, which have been up since November, read. "We got your back."
It's a similar story down the road at Hermann's Bar, on the University of Sydney's Darlington campus, where signs on the back of the cubicle doors promise women that bar staff can help them out of a situation "quickly and discreetly" if they feel "unsafe, uncomfortable, or threatened".