Yesterday evening, browsing the Tesco near to my house, I found a chocolate bar on the shelf which made me laugh like I’ve rarely laughed before.
This one:
I duly posted the shot to Twitter today, and copied in Tesco’s account so they could have a laugh as well. But I don’t think they got it. I tried again, a couple of hours later, and they asked me what the query was.
Well, let’s see if I can break this down a bit:
- I’m fairly sure this started as a way to create a cool name playing on “crème brûlée” and “extreme”. Well done. Nice work with the accented letters in the right places, so far as I can tell. Did anybody in the product development team have an upcoming dismissal hearing or something?
- First proper query: Did nobody notice that the first word of your new product name is actually the word “excrement” with the last two letters knocked off? It’s swirly and brown. You must be kidding, right?
- Second proper query: Do you have a system for catching these little happenings, and does it usually work? I mean, I can think of an amusing name for a bitter ale brewed in Sheldon, but I don’t think it’d get approved.
- OK, we have a product with a slightly rude name, and provided nobody notices it’ll make it all the way to the shelves. How can we make this worse? (rhetorical question)
- GOLD GLITTER, that’s how. Have a look at this and then come back. Are you sure someone signed this off? Maybe it’s COMEDY Gold Glitter.
- So, you have a glitter covered product, named after a Richard III, and you want to know what my query is? Here’s my query: I think that’s damned funny. Do you?
PS: Anybody else want to buy one? (I didn’t) It’s in their online store here: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=277490599 for £1.40
It’s a limited edition. I have no desire to plumb the depths of why their supply flow might be limited. More in the pipeline perhaps?
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Addendum
Tesco got into the spirit of things quite well in the end.
Andrew Clayton 