BEFORE YOU GO
RETAIL RANDOMS
IN KICK-OFF AGAIN
L O C D N A T R E B H CUT Their lawyers may have ground out a no-score draw in a fight about copycat caterpillar cakes, but Aldi’s social media team is currently wiping the floor with its M&S counterparts as the discounter’s redesigned Cuthbert The Caterpillar makes a triumphant return to shelves. When January’s out-of-court confidential agreement was reached, M&S said: “We are very pleased with the outcome.” Fast-forward to now and one can’t imagine the retailer is in any way pleased about Aldi’s latest Twitter campaign, which started with a tweet that could almost be read as an admission of guilt: “Cuthbert is back in store with a fresh new (totally legal) look. Get him while you can #CuthBack”. This fairly innocuous kick-off soon turned into a full-on kicking however, as images were shared online of mobile billboards outside M&S branches taunting
the hapless retailer with headlines like “Colin all cake fans”, “Aisle be back”, and “Made by bakers. Approved by lawyers.”. In case you’ve been in a coma since 1990, Colin is the name of Marks and Spencer’s original, and much-copied, caterpillar cake. A heap of other brands
was quick to join the Twitter pile-on, but M&S has remained silent. In fact, its Twitter account has been dormant since 27 May. Let’s hope this is because Colin is busy tying his laces before he comes storming back online to put all 100 retaliatory boots into Aldi.
UMP H E H T E K A T T ’ N O D Every business needs a great website these days, and behind every great website sits a great web address. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is by simply using the name of your business. It’s straightforward, memorable, and good enough for internet behemoths Facebook, Google, and Amazon. What if you’re called the Welsh Italian Pizza Company though? As visitors to a recent wedding fair in Newport were quick
to take to social media to point out, welshitalianpizza.co.uk can be read in more than one way. The company, which has been “delighting guests at weddings, parties and other events” since 2015, says most of its marketing materials use camel case for the avoidance of doubt. So that’ll be WelshItalianPizza then. “But for the gazebo, which is mainly aimed at street food events and festivals, we thought it would be a fun thing to do.” OfCourseYouDid.
WEDNESDAY 8TH JUNE 2022/ ISSUE 108 / SLRMAG.CO.UK I 29
