BIG FIRMS DESTROYING TRUST FOR ALL Large online companies, banks, insurance companies and energy firms have been warned by the Competition and …

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH? Reality TV is “a combination of reality and produced elements” say ITV after criticism of the veracity of its Love Island reality show …

EMBARRASSING FOR MPs The fact, exposed by the Daily Telegraph, that 377 MPs have had their credit cards suspended for breaking expenses rules was the subject …

HOTPOINT GAGGING The imposition of gagging orders by the Hotpoint Group has been revealed. These are legal orders made to stop those it pays compensation to …

AIRPORTS GRAB THE MONEY Stansted and Manchester Airports have been criticised for their greedy treatment of motorists who take too long to park to drop … 

QUESTION THE REVIEWS Consumer group Which? have warned that some of the products they have tested and given a “Dont buy” rating to have scored very highly …

WELL BRED AD BACK The makers of Hovis bread are bringing back their iconic 1973 TV ad, 46 years after it was first screened and after it won the recent Kantar poll for … 

WRONG QUAFF WITH THE SCOFF Diners may well be pouring into the Hawksmoor restaurant in Manchester, hoping to be accidentally given a rare and pricey bottle of …

BIG PROBLEMS AHEAD FOR DORCHESTER GROUP Those responsible for marketing hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei have some serious thinking to do…

BAD BET FOR BOOKIES Marketeers at bookmakers Betfred and Paddy Power have been accused of continuing to target problem gamblers with new, addictive, roulette …

BREAK UP OF BIG FOUR ACCOUNTANCY FIRMS COMING? MPs have called for the break up of KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and EY, following the collapse of Carillion and …

MORE GOOGLE ABUSE PUNISHED The European Commissioner for Competition has fined Google £1.3 billion for abusing its monopoly on online advertising over …

PROCTOR AND GAMBLE DUMPED British singer Ellie Goulding has not renewed her contract with Proctor and Gamble to promote Pantene shampoo. Whilst no-one …

GIN MAKES YOU SIN If so there is a lot of sinning going on, going on the fact that sales of the Mother’s Ruin have nearly doubled in the last two years, according to …

RIPOSTE FOR O’BLARNEY Amusing to hear that Ryanair’s Michael O’Blarney attempted a joke about British Airway’s ill-fated flight to Dusseldorf that ended in…

SIEG HEIL TO VOLKSWAGEN THEN Someone else making a joke that rebounded on him, and his company was Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess. Diess, or his …

HAVE YOU BEEN MISLED BY THESE? Fourteen women and two men who promote products and services to their fan bases on social media have pledged to the …

SIR NICK PULLS IT OFF Former deputy PM Sir Nick Clegg has started earning the high salary he is now paid by Facebook, by defending Mark Zuckerberg’s firm …

MORE SPINNING FOR SIR NICK Meanwhile Facebook have apparently paid children as young as 13 to install an app that lets Facebook “researchers” spy on …

BOUQUET FOR CATHY PACIFIC Airline Cathy Pacific has won plaudits for standing by an error it had made when publishing prices for first class travel in its New Years …

L’OREAL WHITEWASH Freida Pinto, the Indian actress who rose to fame in the hit 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire has hit out at cosmetic firm L’Oreal, claiming they …

GUARDSMAN TO QUIT OVER SNOWFLAKES AD A Scots guardsman, Stephen McWhirter, is set to quit the Army after they used his photograph in a recruitment …

USURIOUS BANKS TO BE CURBED Invidious and greedy overdraft charges imposed by our banks are to be severely cut after investigation by the Financial …

FAUX FUR FROM RABBITS Online fashion firms have been selling items trimmed with “faux” fur that has actually come from rabbits…

ADS TO BE AXED Transport for London (TFL) is to axe ads for junk foods from Tube stations and bus stops from next month as part of London mayor Sadiq Khan’s war …

BIAS AT BBC TODAY PROGRAMME The BBC’s Radio Four Today news programme is under attack for claiming that research into the last budget …

BAD DECISION? A body that clears ads before they go public has refused to clear an animated one for Iceland stores that features the destruction of …

MORE AIRPORT PARKING FIRMS RUBBISHED
o A customer who entrusted her BMW to Manchester Airport Parking …
o A meet and greet parking firm run by a convicted fraudster has been …

AIRLINE SEAT SCAM Those booking airline seats as families and want to be sure they sit together are being squeezed by the airlines for extra …

TIM PULLS IT OFF We have to confess admiration for Tim Martin, the chairman of pub company Wetherspoons. Martin has prepared his 880 …

NISSAN BOSS NEARLY PULLS IT OFF Following the £700 million fine recently handed down to Audi for selling cars rigged to cheat on diesel …

BLACKMAIL SCAM CIRCULATING Readers are advised that blackmail emails are circulating demanding £500 to not send details of the victim’s …

WORTHLESS The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating claims that some advertisers are using participants in reality TV shows to plug products or …

GATWICK PARKING PROBLEMS A company director who ran a “meet and greet” service at Gatwick and then parked customer’s cars in muddy fields and public car …

RECORD FINE FOR GOOGLE A fine of £3.8 billion has been handed down to Google by the European Commission for breaches of competition law. The Commission says …

A KICKING FOR HERMES Staff at delivery company Hermes were filmed in January punching customer parcels and throwing and kicking them around the depot in …

TURKEY BEFORE CHRISTMAS? The fall in value of the Turkish lira has made a cheap break in the country a real possibility for those hunting a bargain. Despite …

BRING A BOTTLE One piece of railway marketing not thought through is from the clever people who have ordered the smart, new £1billion Bombardier Class 345 …

STUPID MARKETING Learn from their mistakes.
o Wiscombe Cider’s Suicider brand has been banned from sale at a festival following …
o The Bristol Dry Gin distillery was criticised for calling a new vodka Novichok.
o Airline Tui handed out badges to boys saying “Future Tui Captain” and badges to …

ITALY LEADS THE WAY Italy has become the first European country to ban all advertising for gambling. TV, radio and internet promotions will be halted from …

BAD PR FOR BA British Airways has apologised for cancelling the flights of 2,000 passengers after it discovered that the cheap fares offered were a mistake made by …

TRUST GEORGE OSBOURNE AND EVENING STANDARD? Concerns over the editorial credibility of the London Evening Standard and its editor George Osbourne …

SELF- SERVICE SCAMMERS More shoppers are stealing from supermarkets by putting loose avocados and other expensive fruit and veg through self-service tills …

CENTER PARCS UK RIP-OFFS The price of a 7-day stay at a Center Parc holiday park in the UK can be double that charged in some European destinations, and …

W H SMITH STATIONARY Retailers W H Smith have won yet another least-liked position in the annual Which? survey of customer satisfaction, the eighth year it …

COURT BONUSSING A whistle-blower at Capita, the firm paid £59million a year by the BBC to collect TV licence fees, has told the Daily Mail that large bonuses were paid …

DOWN AT WETHERSPOONS This month sees the selling of more British drinks and less from the other countries in the EU at Weatherspoon’s. The 880 pub chain will …

ALCOHOL MAYDAY Some alcoholic drinks are set to cost more from May 1 in Scotland as the country becomes the first in the World to set a minimum price for …

FOOT IN MOUTH AT FACEBOOK A senior executive at Facebook has added to the social media firm’s current serious woes by claiming, in a memo in 2016 that was …

TIME GENTLEMEN PLEASE Sexy images of nearly dressed cartoon ladies and saucy names used to market craft beers look to be on the way out. Such racy delights …

ADS IN THE DOCK Toothpaste claimed to whiten teeth, shampoo claimed to help reduce hair loss, long distance bus tickets for £1 and mineral water claimed to …

BOILER ROOM BOYS JAILED Two crooks who used hard sell “boiler room” techniques to defraud investors into paying large sums of money for worthless or …

HELP CRUSH THE CAR HIRE CONS The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating car rental firms that advertise low prices on the internet and then stiff …

BIG HIKE Cex, purveyors of second-hand computer and office equipment and CD/DVDs may need to rethink their latest marketing. Till earlier this year those …

NOW LISTEN KIDS Children eating more healthily could be a vain hope, given the number of ads for junk food they see. This amounts to up to 1,000 every year…

MAKING MONKEYS OF US ALL Lawyers are currently preparing what is claimed could be the largest legal action in UK history – a class action against Volkswagen …

DARK SIDE Those selling Malta for sunny Mediterranean holidays or incentive travel this season have a new challenge after a journalist who made accusations of … 

GIVE IT BACK THEN Automatic fines issued to 800,000 taxpayers every year by the HMRC computer for late filing of tax returns may be illegal, a judge has ruled …

DEATH OF THE COLD CALL? MPs are preparing to debate new laws which could impose an outright ban on cold calls, something 85% of consumers would support …

NO BULL Following concerns that high caffeine drinks such as Red Bull are responsible for bad behaviour of children in school, a number of supermarkets are …

RICHARD PUTS THEM RIGHT A bad decision made by someone un-named at Virgin Trains has been sensibly overturned by the firm’s owner, Sir Richard Branson …

SIGHT FOR SORE EYES A sense of humour failure, we hear, prevailed among marketeers at opticians Specsavers after one of their branded cars hit a lamp-post …

OH REALLY FERGIE? The Duchess of York is claiming she has lost more than £40 million in expected business earnings because she was exposed trying to sell access …

ACADEMIA MUST DO BETTER Those who thought that those running our universities might just be setting a good example to young people have had to think again as the …

AND THERE’S MORE University ethics might also be a consideration for choice. A recent investigation by the Daily Mail indicated that at least 24 universities, all …

BROADBAND CON A Which? survey of broadband speeds reveals that some providers are claiming speeds that are up to 62% higher than they really are…

OCH AYE A move to set a minimum price per unit for the sale of alcohol has been approved by the Supreme Court in Scotland, making the country the first in the world …

PLANE SILLY Meanwhile travellers by plane are emerging as problem drinkers, with 10% drinking 15 units or more on their flight. Reasons given are nerves, the easy …

ENDOWMENT FLOPS EXPOSED Tens of thousands of homebuyers who were persuaded to take out mortgage endowment policies with insurance companies in …

STEPHEN DRAWS THE LINE Actor Stephen Tomkinson (DCI Banks) has turned down lucrative voice-over work offers from a credit card company. This is, he says …

ADS IN THE DOCK
o An ad for Surrey Police that suggested hearing a crying baby was not a reason …
o A Royal Mail ad that was intended to raise awareness of identity theft has been …
o Virgin Active apologised to a ballet dancer who appeared in an ad for their gyms …

CLEVER SECRETS OF PR PROFESSIONALS Top PR firm Bell Pottinger, founded by Thatcher guru Lord Bell, has apparently been impressing their client, the Gupta …

RYANAIR MESSES UP AGAIN An estimated 400,000 passengers booked on Ryanair flights have had them cancelled as the company admits that it has mismanaged its …

ANOREXIA NO LONGER FASHIONABLE Unhealthily skinny models will need to start eating properly again if they want to work after Gucci, St Laurent and Vuitton et Dior …

RUIN YOUR LIFE, AND HELP THE TREASURY A proposed reduction in the amounts that can be gambled on high-street located FOBT’s (Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) …

KILLING THE KIDS A 2004 episode of the children’s cartoon character Peppa Pig was banned in Australia for being dangerously spider-friendly but then accidentally aired …

BET HE DOESN’T DRINK IT NOW Carling lager is weaker than advertised, the brewers Moulson Coors have claimed in court. Sold as having 4% alcohol by …

LAMB GAMBOLS OUT OF FAVOUR Sales of lamb have fallen by 25% over the last fifteen years as less families enjoy a Sunday roast, citing a lack of time and …

BIG MAN George Osbourne, former chancellor, banker’s friend, money-lover and editor of the London Evening Standard has been attracting some brickbats for his …