Tesco has been forced to drop an advert for milk, after farmers pointed out that the cows used in the advert were a Hereford cross cow – known for their beef production and the fact that they aren’t farmed for milk.
How does this compare to other advert embarrassments?
Pulled
The advert was for a major milk promotion by the supermarket. The posters feature grazing cows with the words “4 Pint Milk each only £1. Price down and staying down.”
One appeared in the rural town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire – which is known for its dairy farms – and according to the swns news service, a local farmer spotted the mistake. Soon it hit Twitter, where @freerangechef wrote: “Dear #tesco why do you have pictures of beef cows,while promoting cheap milk?”.
Tesco told the Shropshire Star newspaper that it will replace the adverts with pictures of a dairy breed.
Advert howlers
It’s embarrassing for a supermarket which has made much of working in partnership with farmers and having close ties with its suppliers. The fact that it couldn’t tell a beef cow from a dairy cow is unlikely to have convinced farmers that Tesco is engaged with the farming community.
However, it’s far from the first organisation to have been humiliated by its own advertising. This month Paddy Power gained the dubious honour of having the most complained-about advert in British history. The company used the fact that the Oscars were being announced at around the beginning of the Oscar Pistorius trial for an incredible poorly judged campaign. The advert featured an Oscars statuette with Pistorius’ face and the words: “It’s Oscar Time. Money Back If He Walks. We will refund all losing bets on the Oscar Pistorius trial if he is found not guilty.”
The advertising watchdog took the highly unusual step of axing the advert immediately, rather than awaiting the outcome of its investigation as to whether the advert was offensive “for trivialising the issues surrounding a murder trial, the death of a woman and disability; we are also challenging whether, in doing so, it brings the good reputation of advertising generally into dispute.”
And it doesn’t have to be shocking to be humiliating for the firm in question. In September it was TSB‘s turn to be red-faced, when it rolled out adverts in towns across the UK. The adverts read Hello, and then the name of the town, followed by the words “Welcome to local banking TSB.” Unfortunately in the town of Ashtead, the poster spelled the town’s name Ashstead – suggesting that perhaps the bank wasn’t as familiar with the local area as it could be.
Then there was payday lender Cash Lady which ran into trouble over its choice of Kerry Katona as the face of the brand. They were first rapped by the watchdog for irresponsibly appealing to vulnerable people. Then they were forced to drop Katona altogether after she went bankrupt for the second time.
Finally, there was the case of Iggy Pop, who became the face of Swiftcover in 2009, claiming it helped him save time by looking after his documents. The company faced humiliation when it emerged that Swiftcover’s terms and conditions wouldn’t allow a musician to be insured by them. The firm immediately amended its terms to allow Pop cover.
Source: AOL Money & Finance
