Walmart: We're sorry for making ISIL flag cake

Lindsay Deutsch | USA TODAY Network

Show Caption Hide Caption Walmart apologizes for 'ISIS cake' What's up with Walmart? A Louisiana man was frustrated by his local Walmart after it refused to feature an image of the Confederate flag on a cake he ordered. Testing Walmart's limits, the man then decided to ask for a cake with the ISIL flag.

In a now-removed YouTube video that gained almost half-a-million views in three days, a man named Chuck Netzhammer condemns Walmart for making a custom Islamic State battle flag cake for him the day after his request for a Confederate flag cake was denied.

In the video, Netzhammer of Louisiana holds up the white cake with black icing depicting an ISIL symbol and says, "That's an ISIS battle flag cake that anybody can go buy at Walmart … but you can't buy a Confederate flag toy, with, like, say, a Dukes of Hazzard car." (The Islamic State also is known as ISIL and ISIS.)

"Walmart, can you please explain why you're alienating Southern Americans with this trash that you're allowing being sold at your store while at the same point, Confederate memorabilia is not allowed?" he asks.

"Our talented bakery associates take pride in what they create for our customers. It's unfortunate one customer thought to take advantage of an associate who did not know the flag and its meaning," said John Forrest Ales, a spokesman for Walmart. "This cake should not have been made, and we apologize for the mistake."

At 10:15 p.m. ET Monday, the video was removed from YouTube with the statement, "This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube's policy against spam, scams, and commercially deceptive content."

Last week, Walmart, along with major retailers like Amazon, Ebay and Etsy, banned the sales of items promoting the Confederate battle flag for sale from its stores and its website. The move came the same day that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for the removal of a Confederate flag from the state's Capitol grounds.

Walmart is the world's largest retailer, with nearly 11,000 stores in 28 countries.

Contributing: Ed Brackett, USA TODAY