This morning I called Asda’s press office following the comments made to Daggs in the comments thread of this post. The conversation started something along the lines of:
Me: I’m calling from the Campaign for an English Parliament. One of our members has had a response to a complaint that he’s not happy with and that we aren’t happy with either.
Asda: I think I know what you’re calling about
Me: Do you?
Asda: Yes, is it anything do with the “connotations” comment?
So Asda aren’t as green as their logo, it was less than 24 hours after the response was published on our website.
Asda have provded the following statement:
As discussed on the phone that is certainly not our policy. In fact we carry the Cross of St George on a number of products including a range of ASDA English cheeses.
Rightly or wrongly customers living in England tell us that they are happy for the Union flag to be used on ASDA products that have been produced or sourced from within England.
However our customers in Scotland and Wales prefer their own national flag is used in preference to the Union flag.
At ASDA we have led the way in helping reclaim the Cross of St George on behalf of our English customers. During major sporting tournaments in recent years we have sold millions of English flags, and as a result the Cross of St George has been draped from cars and houses across the length and breadth of the country. We look forward to England qualifying for next year’s World Cup so we can repeat the exercise once more.
I can only apologise on behalf of ASDA for any confusion caused by this silly email response.
They are, of course, correct in a way in that the conflation of England and British is so much a part of everyday life that many English people either don’t see the difference or don’t care. However, this doesn’t mean that it is right and by labelling English products as British, Asda are playing a part in perpetuating this confused thinking.
There is an argument that labelling products correctly would increase sales, particularly of native goods. Labelling English products as English rather than British, builds brand loyalty (the brand being England) as Asda have seen with their sport and St Georges Day promotions. If Asda is the only supermarket consistently labelling their English products as such it follows that “fans” of the English brand will shop at Asda.
There is also the matter of food miles – something that a lot of people consider to be important when choosing produce. Where does a “British” apple come from? Does it come from a farm down the road or does it come from a farm in the Scottish highlands or Northern Ireland? Apples from France can quite easily have less food miles than apples from “Britain”.
Rather than waiting for English people to wake up and start demanding in greater numbers that English products are labelled as such, Asda could be leading the way in this revolution, getting a serious headstart on their competitors and reaping the benefits. They already know where the products have come from, they already label them with a country of origin, changing the British flag to an English flag isn’t likely to cost them huge sums of money. In fact, the English flag is easier to print and uses one less colour so it should be cheaper!
Asda says it has sent a response to Daggs so I’m sure we’ll hear from him shortly on whether it was a suitable response.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] sterling work from the Campaign for an English Parliament – just about the only organisation in the country that speaks [...]
September 8th, 2009 at 2:20 pmThanks for making the call Wonko. (Personally i don’t do ‘phoning as i’m hearing impaired)I use e-mail, for me it’s a very helpful communication tool.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:56 pmI’ve not yet recieved a response to this mornings message that i sent. But whatever, i think their cage has been well and truly rattled.
I’m an English consumer who is happy for the Union Flag to be on English produced (whatever that means in law) but I would prefer the English flag instead. Asda appear to imply that the Welsh and Scots are nationalist bigots compared to their easy-going English customers.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:50 pmBrian, if you are happy to have England represented anywhere by the Union flag. This is not the website for you.
September 9th, 2009 at 7:03 amRead the Asda reply, it is word for word the same reply given to me by Sainsburys and Tesco at least two years ago! Perhaps they all employ the same PR company or perhaps they are all taking us for mugs, especially the Tartan Tesco!
Lets boycott the lot of them!
September 10th, 2009 at 12:13 pmM&S have done really well on this front I don’t think that should be dismissed – the CoSG is on a lot of their products. Do they have stores in Scotland and Wales?
September 10th, 2009 at 7:38 pmI think we should also run a positive campaign for which chain has the most lines with the English flag.
so far ASDA has cheese
M&S has milk and Waitrose has butter clearly labelled English butter (without the flag)
We should award ‘good practice’. At this time of year we should be noting whether Englsih apples are labelled/flagged English or British
September 12th, 2009 at 3:06 pmMarks and Spencers does English milk ———-with a great big COSG on the bottle!
September 13th, 2009 at 6:12 pmReceived the same reply to day from ASDA.
I intend to ask Asda what they mean by ‘reclaim the Cross of St George on behalf of our English custmers’. Reclaim from who?
September 15th, 2009 at 10:54 amSent this to Asda:
You say that Asda have ‘led the way in helping reclaim the Cross of St George on behalf of our English customers’.
I am interested to know what exactly you mean by that. Can I ask who you believe you have reclaimed it from?
Perhaps you should have said that Asda have supported the people of England in their increasing use of the true English flag the Cross of St George.
September 15th, 2009 at 11:21 amIt hasn’t been ‘reclaimed’ because the Cross of St George has been the national flag of England for more than 700 years! The increasingly redundant Union flag is a relative new comer.
I think you will find that more and more English people will expect to see the Cross of St George on English products.
I have also sent an Email to ASDA addressing this issue, I will update you on the response…..
….If I get a response.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:15 pmI recieved a second response yesterday. Essentially the response show at the top of this item.
September 15th, 2009 at 1:27 pmThe only question i have remaining is.
When did ASDA or any big retailer ask the English if they are happy with the Union flag on English produce?
No one has ever asked me or anyone i know!