Britain’s largest supermarket chain moves the “smokey bacon Pringles” from Ramadan display after admitting placement was not “a great idea”.
The Tesco supermarket chain is facing accusations of cultural insensitivity after offering bacon flavoured Pringles as part of a “Ramadan promotion”.
Consumption of pork products is strictly forbidden in Islam.
Even though the crisps rely on artificial flavouring and do not contain pork, the marketing initiative triggered a combination of outrage and bewildered amusement on social media.
To add to the company’s embarrassment the bacon flavoured Pringles were placed under a “Ramadan banner” at Tesco’s Liverpool Street store, around a mile from one of London’s most important mosques in Whitechapel.
One twitter user was lost for words, while Mohammed Waqas described the decision to associate the bacon flavoured crisps as “stupidity at its best”.
A Pringles spokesman said that the Ramadam promotion was its idea, but the company had expected the offer to be restricted to its original flavour along with salt and vinegar as well as sour cream and onion. “We apologise for the mistake, which was made in one store in London. These Pringles cans have now been moved,” the company added. “It was never our intention to cause any offence and we’ve taken steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again.’’
A Tesco spokesman was equally contrite. ‘We are proud to offer a wide range of meals and products to meet the needs of our customers during Ramadan. We recognise these Pringles weren’t in the most suitable place and our store colleagues have now moved them. Also the ‘Ramadan Mubarak’ banner was not a great idea.”
But to be honest, “Tesco” is not alone in the chronicles thanks to the supermarket “Morrisons”.
A branch of Morrisons, in west London, has been criticised for the “disappointing gaffe” by a Muslim shopper who said he spotted the misplaced sticker on a freezer displaying pork meat foods.
Someone compared the display – which appeared on a row of other Ramadan promotional fridges storing mostly vegetarian products – to the misguided Tesco offer reported yesterday.
A Liverpool Street store came in for criticism after it placed smokey bacon flavoured Pringles on a Ramadan promotional stand, with some describing the mistake as “hilarious”.
“With Tesco, it was just bacon artificial flavouring – which is suitable even for vegetarians,” a customer said. “But obviously sausages and pork, they’re probably not the sort of items Muslims would ever eat.”
Morrisons said the pork products were never part of a Ramadan promotion and claimed the sticker may have been moved by a customer. “The photo appears to show a Ramadan sticker that was originally located in another freezer section,” a spokesman said. “Somebody appears to have moved the sticker before the photo was taken. We can confirm that the Ramadan sticker is not near any pork products this week.”
Source: The Telegraph