Hugh, the BBC and the DEC too
Haven’t the lovely twin worlds of PR and the media been working particularly well this week?
- Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall versus Tesco. If you watched Chickens, Hugh & Tesco Too on Channel 4 on Monday or have generally been following the saga of ‘celebrity chef’ Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his campaign to improve the welfare of battery chickens over the past year you will have noticed that Tesco hasn’t exactly been taking him very seriously. They are generally obstructive, fail to return phone calls, refuse interviews and when they concede to speak to Hugh, they put forward the type of media spokesperson who gives PR an even worse name than it already has. Although you’ve got to admire Tesco for not bowing down to the whims of celebrities (unlike, say, the government and its love-in with Jamie Oliver) this has to have been a bit of a PR disaster for them. By thinking that they above having to answer to annoying TV programmes, Tesco are missing the fact that in these days of subjective, lobbying mission TV, people think that they should. They will pay for their arrogance. Hopefully.
- The BBC versus the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). The BBC are sticking to the notion of journalistic objectivity by refusing to promote the appeal for the crisis in Gaza. Regardless of whether they are right or not, they are indirectly doing a fabulous promotional job for the DEC -the BBCs refusal to promote the appeal is itself promoted in every second news bulletin across the country. This sort of media coverage is surely something the DEC can only usually dream of…
Tags: marketing moments, on TV
January 27th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I watched the tesco show. The Pr woman was classic of the kind how she sleeps is amazing, to spend all day spouting rubbish must really sap your soul and I bet with her 80 K a year job it’s along while since she’s bought one of thair rotten cheap chickens. I’m not sure tesco will suffer they seem to shrug off these sort of thing and move on. People just seem to troop along to their shops what ever they do.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
If I ran Tescos I would make it a rule that everyone who works there, especially in the PR department, has to eat their stuff.
You’re right that people do tend to accept them. Their monopoly is hard to avoid although I like to try. Like you, I have a local street market.
If you want more grist to your mill have you read Shopped – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shopped-Shocking-Power-British-Supermarkets/dp/0007158041/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233069159&sr=8-1
January 27th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I hate Tesco with a surprising amount of passion. I have done since the days of odious she-devil Tesco Heiress Shirley Porter, and because of her I stopped shopping there in the 1980s.
I agree with you that the Beeb have played a blinder as regards this week’s controversy – this way they get to stay slightly sanctimonious whilst continuing to give the fund masses of publicity. A rare win-win.
January 28th, 2009 at 10:12 am
It’s funny how Tesco, like McDonalds, brings out the passion in people. Tesco really winds me up but I don’t mind Sainsburys or even Lidl. Ah, double standards!
January 28th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
I think people hate tescos because of the porter affair but mainly because they are so blatant they clearly are top dogs and don’t give a monkeys what people think there’s something quite crowing about the way they go about things
January 28th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Credit where credit is due though, one thing that Tescos are very, very good at is ‘customer loyalty’/free market research – they must have an absolutely formidable database on the shopping habits of Britain. Scary if you don’t like the idea of big brother customer databases, but brilliant if you want to flog product.