
Kingsmill’s loaf shaped as Elvis’ head
What is so sad is that I had a meeting with Bertie Ager, the representative of the PR company “Cake” who thought up the idea and the account executive of the advertising agency, Victoria Wilkinson of J Walter Thompson. I had hoped to help Kingsmill develop their campaign by bringing over “Donny Edwards” who featured in the commercial and put on stage shows with him, organise photo calls at supermarkets and put him in TV shows. Also, we discussed special Elvis offers on packs of Kingsmill bread. The meeting seem to be going fine until they told me what their next big marketing idea was and that was bread in the shape of Elvis’ head.
I was shocked ! I was almost lost for words over such a sick idea and said the promotion would insult Elvis, his family and his millions of fans. I suggested using the shape of a crown or guitar or even a picture of Elvis inside the packet. Bertie listened to my point of view but dear little, jumped-up, arrogant and patronising madam Victoria (or Torie to her friends) said “I DON’T CARE WHAT ELVIS FANS THINK”. She left the meeting without saying goodbye or thank you. I continued to chat to Bertie while I packed my case and that was the last I heard of them. I had expected they had taken my advice and were waiting until the New Year to have a different campaign. They never came back, other than to confirm they would only use ‘the King’ and not ‘Elvis’ in their marketing and advertising. I phoned a few weeks later but Bertie was busy and promised to call me back but he didn’t. I sent an email again asking them not to have a campaign insulting Elvis’ memory but got no reply.
Suddenly, I
got an email from Hubert of the Belgium fan club featuring the
disgusting loaf. This bread, in the shape of Elvis’ head, is being
launched to honour (???) Elvis Presley’s 70th birthday by
Kingsmill. They launched the first part of their campaign last week
and publicity was featured in several major UK papers, ARE
YOU LOAFSOME TONIGHT?, Toast
the King
and
THE
KING
HAS RISEN ...just look at
the image of Elvis portrayed in the media associated with such a
demeaning campaign.
Jo
Sykes, of Kingsmill’s parent company Allied Bakeries said, “ What
better tribute to the great man than to bake him his very own
limited-edition loaf, for everyone to enjoy”,
WHAT GREATER
INSULT…more appropriately !!
This is one time
EPE should use their power and influence to stop this terrible
marketing campaign that is just insulting and demeaning to Elvis
Presley, instead of harassing fan clubs to stop using the name Elvis.
We want fans to
write emails, letters, make phone calls to all the names provided
below in two waves…immediately and then from January 3rd
until January 8th. In Britain there is almost a public
holiday from December 24th – January 3rd as
most offices and many factories are closed. So there is no point
trying to contact anyone at the offices of Kingsmill, Allied Bakeries,
Associated British Foods, Cake and J Walter Thompson, the guilty
firms.
Also, fans may
want to contact major supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury, ASDA,
Safeway to ask them to withdraw from this awful marketing campaign.
WHO TO CONTACT TO COMPLAIN to and stop this sick
Kingsmill campaign
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