Fat Cats, Wonga, Driving, Fines, Corruption – Marketing Matters Jan/Feb 2015 ISSUE 42

STORM OVER THE FAT CATS An overdue and welcome storm is building, it seems, over the issues of company and executive greed. The first loud and frightening rumble…

WONGA FINALLY GETS IT Reviled payday lender Wonga has removed its branding from football club Newcastle United’s children’s replica kit after concern from MP’s that…

WATCH THE DRIVING More than £90 has to be added to car insurance premiums to cover the increase in fraudulent whiplash claims, which insurer Aviva say surged by…

FINES FOR BAD PHONE MARKETING Ofcom have fined two companies £20,000 each for making excessive numbers of silent and/or abandoned calls to consumers…

SHEERAZ, ANYONE? Britain’s new food policing unit, set up in the wake of last years horsemeat scandal is to focus on the growing trade in fake wine. One of the signs …

A TASTE OF THE ETHICAL STUFF As gourmet readers will know Waitrose does not sell foie gras – traditionally made in France from the unhealthily swollen livers of …

THE CORRUPTION GAME A student in Valencia has invented a board game that features the corruption rife in the ruling classes of Spanish society. With business …

STORM OVER THE FAT CATS

An overdue and welcome storm is building, it seems, over the issues of company and executive greed.

The first loud and frightening rumble of thunder was the near collapse of the economy by greedy bankers, many of whom are still behaving just as greedily, unethically and in some cases illegally as they always have done, with Fred Goodwin (RBS) and Bob Diamond (Barclays) as the UK’s most uninspiring role models. Then some flashes of lightning with the realisation that big fat firms like Google and Amazon were helped to get that way by tax avoidance schemes that our big-business-friendly HMRC is failing to stop as it concentrates on screwing tax out of the smaller companies that cant afford very expensive accountants. Continue reading

WONGA FINALLY GETS IT

Reviled payday lender Wonga has removed its branding from football club Newcastle United’s children’s replica kit after concern from MP’s that the association was targeting children with the wrong messages. The company claim that the U-turn is consistent with their being “a responsible lender” It is thought that football clubs are not always too ethically fussy about where their sponsorship money comes from.

Part of Wonga’s “responsible lending” was the recent sending of fake legal letters to its customers, to encourage them to pay interest rates of more than 5,000% APR. A succession of bosses at the firm have failed to clean up its image and in December the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) belatedly clamped down on all payday lenders with tough new rules expected to drive most of them out of business. Continue reading

WATCH THE DRIVING

More than £90 has to be added to car insurance premiums to cover the increase in fraudulent whiplash claims, which insurer Aviva say surged by 51% in 2013 and another 21% in 2014 for their company.

The dangerous “crash for cash” scam, which costs the insurance industry up to £2 billion, involves gangs who suddenly brake their vehicles in front of innocent drivers, forcing them to crash and be liable, as well as exposing them to serious injury or worse. The gangs then file fraudulent claims for whiplash injury with their victim’s insurers. Aviva say they currently have 6,500 suspicious claims on their books from known fraud gangs. Continue reading

FINES FOR BAD PHONE MARKETING

Ofcom have fined two companies £20,000 each for making excessive numbers of silent and/or abandoned calls to consumers.

Both types of call occur when automatic dialling machines are set to dial up more numbers than sales or call centre staff can deal with, a deliberate policy to ensure that staff work at full economic capacity When the victim picks up the telephone there is no-one on the line (silent call), or there is no-one on the line but a recorded message advises which company has called and gives a phone number to call back on (abandoned call) Ofcom set maximum limits for both types of call and impose fines for those it catches exceeding the limits. Continue reading

SHEERAZ, ANYONE?

Britain’s new food policing unit, set up in the wake of last years horsemeat scandal is to focus on the growing trade in fake wine.

One of the signs that Food Standards Agency inspectors will be looking for is the presence of spelling mistakes on the bottle label – one sample seized featured “shardonnay”, and a Sauvignon Blanc was apparently from “Austrlia”. Continue reading

A TASTE OF THE ETHICAL STUFF

As gourmet readers will know Waitrose does not sell foie gras – traditionally made in France from the unhealthily swollen livers of force-fed geese or ducks – and launched an ethical alternative a few years back.

Faux Gras is a Waitrose Christmas product made from the livers of normally-fed birds blended with duck, goose and chicken fat, and cream, to give the final product the creamy, fatty liverishness much prized by fans of the cruel stuff, many of whom will love the taste but not the guilt, like the author. Continue reading

THE CORRUPTION GAME

A student in Valencia has invented a board game that features the corruption rife in the ruling classes of Spanish society.

With business and government types in Spain being exposed for graft on a regular basis Marina Belda has been inspired to launch Corruptopolis, a game where players start by giving a convincing explanation as to how large caches of corrupt cash have ended up in their bank accounts.

Rumours that her next game project will feature the ethical world of international football should be dismissed as jolly likely.

Event Organisers Update ISSUE 124 Jan 2015

BUSINESS AS USUAL? Visitors to riot-damaged Thailand, once again under martial law since the bloodless coup to restore order on May 22, are being advised of the serious…

SPEAKING OF WHICH… Old Grit’s vitriolic rant about speakers who sell from their stages in Issue 123 touched a nerve, it seems, amongst professional speakers. When …

GO LARGE IN COPENHAGEN Those running, or looking at running events in Denmark will need to know about the modern Bella Center, and the adjacent Bella Sky Comwell …

OASIS AT HEATHROW Those wanting to run an event near Heathrow Airport will want to include the Marriott London Heathrow hotel in the list of options. This modern …

TEA FOR TWO FOR ONE Patisserie Valerie, the continental-style cafe and cake-shop chain, is to offer traditional English afternoon tea at its branches. This is for a charge …

DESTINATION SHOWCASE Featuring a range of 50 hotels, hotel groups, convention bureaux and DMC’s from 20 countries the Moulden Marketing B2B Destination …

SHOAH Shoah, a nine-hour, ten-minute documentary detailing the horrors of the Holocaust from interviews with survivors and perpetrators is not easy to watch, but …

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Visitors to riot-damaged Thailand, once again under martial law since the bloodless coup to restore order on May 22, are being advised of the serious consequences of openly criticising the military, an action now illegal across the country.

Three months after the coup a Bangkok taxi-driver was sentenced to 30 months in jail after a heated discussion and difference of opinion with his passenger on inequality in Thai society. The passenger recorded the conversation on his cell-phone and handed a copy to the police, after which the taxi-driver was charged with and found guilty of insulting the king. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Westminster have warned against the advisability of visitors making any political statements in public and counselled to avoid any political gatherings, marches, demonstrations or protests. Since the coup a number of media outlets have been taken off air and a number of websites have been blocked. Continue reading