A clever sting operation aimed at exposing the grubby world of celebrity endorsement for the Channel 4 Dispatches programme scored a bullseye recently, persuading a bunch of bit players from the TV soap Coronation Street to plug fake products to their fan base on social networking sites in exchange for free samples.

The actors were unaware that the products, which included “anti-ageing skin toner using water from a mountain well in Bali” and an “energising bracelet blessed by Buddhist monks” were fake, though any with a grasp of European languages might have spotted that the name of the company giving them the freebies for the plugs on Twitter, “Puttana Aziendale” was Italian for corporate whore. Advertising Standards Authority guidelines for products plugged for payment on social networking sites state that they should not misleadingly masquerade as honest endorsements, these days a contradiction in terms perhaps, but should be flagged as advertising.

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Meanwhile the ethics of some senior MPs, as well as lobbyists, have been called into question following another sting operation, this time by the Panorama team, in which the MPs were asked to represent Fiji to Parliament for payments.

Fiji was excluded from the Commonwealth in 2009 over its human rights record, but this didn’t stop Conservative MP for Newark, Patrick Mercer from agreeing to champion the lifting of their suspension for a four figure sum. Once exposed Mercer resigned.

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A survey amongst parents and children by Colgate into what makes us smile could be of interest to marketeers.

Two members of a call-centre group, Swansea-based Save Britain Money have been fined a total of £225,000 by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) for failing to adequately check that numbers they were dialling were registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), a legal requirement. The fines follow more than 2,700 complaints about the group to the ICO and TPS in a 20-month period.

Nationwide Energy Services, which sells replacement boilers was fined £125,000, and We Claim, You Gain, which sells PPI claims services was fined £100,000. Both companies have said they will appeal.

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Following serious fires started by the floating and lit Chinese lanterns used in advertising for HSBC and Absout vodka a number of calls have been made for their restriction or banning on safety grounds.

CCTV footage recently showed a lantern landing on stacks of plastic recycling material at a factory in Smethwick and setting it alight within eight minutes, a major blaze involving 200 fire-fighters and 35 fire engines.

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News that pub-group J.D Wetherspoon have just secured council and police approval for a £2 million pub and restaurant at Junction 2 on the M40 has been met with dismay by drink-driving campaigners, who are describing as ” a disaster waiting to happen”.

Alcohol will be available from 8.00am to 1.00am, seven days a week, and Wetherspoon chairman and respected marketeer Tim Martin has responded to the criticism by pointing out the alcohol is available from service station supermarkets, and that anyway he is catering for the non-drivers stopping for food and drink. Cartoonists have depicted drinkers at Wetherspoons asking “One for the extremely dangerous, fast road?

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The case of a shopper complaining that she was refused service at a Sainsbury’s checkout until she stopped using her mobile phone has turned into a PR disaster for the supermarket after it apologised for the actions of its check-out employee and awarded the complainant £10 worth of vouchers.

Most of the comments posted on newspaper web-sites have supported Sainsbury’s employee and wondered why Sainsbury’s couldn’t find the backbone to do the same against what most see as the shopper’s ill-mannered actions, and others put down to the ignorance of the self-important. Sainsbury’s head of customer services Ray Biggs says that his employer backed down because they want to please everybody, even the socially retarded it seems, but are glad that others are taking the stand that Sainsbury’s feel it would be commercially unwise to do.

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Following a fall of 22% in its British profits for the first quarter of the year, Santander, the bank that likes to say “Yes – unless we change our minds” is to focus more on its business customers.

Santander in Britain is run, badly it seems, by Ana Patricia Botin, eldest daughter of Emilio Botin, the Spanish group’s executive chairman. Last year Ms Botin upset some customers in the business sector by reneging on promises made to them by British banks that Santander took over, then making a quick U-turn following complaints. (See Marketing Matters Issues 29 and 30) Continue reading →

One of the least inspiring marketing concepts around, for this old curmudgeon, is that of paid celebrity endorsement.

Latest celeb to willingly and publicly torpedo personal credibility for cash is actress Patsy Kensit who used her appearance on ITV’s daytime Alan Titchmarsh Show to plug Weight Watchers as part of her role as one of the firm’s paid “Weight Loss Ambassadors”, generating a complaint to regulator Ofcom, which was upheld. The grubby affair has damaged the reputations of Kensit, Weight Watchers, Alan Titchmarsh and ITV, all for a modest amount of money. Continue reading →