Will Tesco Change for Good?An interesting piece in yesterday’s Irish Times about the row between Unicef Ireland and Tesco Ireland about the latter’s use of ‘Change for Good’ as a tagline. Unicef has pointed out that they’ve been using it for years in connection with the collection of foreign change from passengers on Aer Lingus flights. Unfortunately the slogan is trademarked only for charitable use, not commercial use so legally Tesco can use it. It really doesn’t cast Tesco in a great light, particularly at a time when huge multiples are coming under increasing criticism. It’s a valuable lesson in checking out phrases and taglines very carefully before engaging in a large scale campaign. And not just checking their commercial use but also non-profit use. Do I think Tesco should give in gracefully and stop using it? Yes, but not only because of the Unicef connection. While “Change for Good” makes absolute sense for the Unicef initiative it makes no sense for Tesco. Since the day I first heard it all it says to me is, ‘We’ve ripped you off for years but we promise we won’t do it so much anymore.’ Nothing about Tesco’s use of the slogan makes me trust them. In fact it actively makes me distrust. I don’t think that’s what they intended. Oh, and it’ll be interesting to see what they do about John Gibbon’s new website www.everylittlehelps.ie as well. Have a look at it and if you’d like Tesco to stop using the tagline you can register your request there. 2 Comments1. David Quinn | 2009-08-31 08:07 PM While in no way wishing to defend Tesco's use of Unicef's phrase "change for good" I think it is in the public interest that it be pointed out that John Gibbons is a director of MedMedia whose clients are the pharmaceutical companies that benefit commercially from Unicef's vaccination programme. 2. Grainne Madden | 2009-08-31 08:10 PM Thanks for your input David. Valid point but I should emphasise that I wasn't necessarily supporting all that John said in his article. Rather I was highlighting that companies need to research carefully before engaging in a big campaign and also that I think it's a truly ill advised campaign anyway for Tesco. Add a CommentYour comment will appear once it has been approved. |