John Gibbons, columnist with the Irish Times, has just launched www.EveryLittleHelps.ie on the back of his article in the Irish Times highlighting what many see as another cynical move by the scarey giant that is Tesco.
Tesco has become an absolute global monolith, but not just in terms of supermarkets. Few realise fully the power which Tesco is now wielding, armed with massive reserves of cash, detailed personal behavioural information on millions of citizens (via shopping pattern analysis, “club cards”, Tesco mobile phones, Tesco credit cards and a ream of other financial offerings) and a stranglehold which is killing off the domestic food industry, all led by a highly efficient, profit-maximising and ruthless international management. The implications of this vast power are staggering and could lead to intrusion and exploitation in almost any area of people’s lives in the future.
This particular story focusses on Tesco claiming that it had ‘never heard’ of the slogan “Change for Good” being used by Unicef on Aer Lingus for the past twenty two years. The Unicef “Change for Good” campaign, which collects change from air passengers, has been one of their most successful campaigns ever collecting over six million euro in donations since its launch in 1987. Tesco has now adopted this same slogan for its recent cost cotting promotions to the dismay of Unicef and the disgust of many informed people.
This is “the first time in Unicef’s history that a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalise on one of our campaigns”, said executive director, Melanie Verwoerd.
John has picked this up, however, and as a counter gesture has initiated an online petition opposing the move based at www.EveryLittleHelps.ie. Nice one John. Shame on you, Tesco. *
* If Tesco are genuine in their claim that they were unaware of the ongoing Unicef campaign by the same name, I call on them to donate an ongoing portion of their profits to offset the damage to Unicef.