Signal boost: take Tesco to task for false accusation of shoplifting

I was really annoyed to read via Neil Monnery of the appalling treatment handed out to Nancy when she was falsely accused of shoplifting a bottle of shampoo because the security people had apparently seen her put it in her bag over the CCTV.  They clearly saw wrong as it wasn't there.

Now, it doesn't matter whether someone spends thousands of pounds a year or a few pounds a week in a shop, or is in for the first time. They should not be subjected to the appalling, humiliating and distressing ordeal she was put through, especially in front of her children. I mean, look at this:

Let me tell you, watching a rude and uncouth man rummaging through the contents of your handbag, (tampons, lipstick, crumbs, toy cars, spare knickers etc) is a really degrading experience. I watched as they realised there was nothing there. I suggested we go through my shopping bags too, just to make sure. The security guard, whom I later discovered was the security manager, literally scratched his head and said “but we saw you take something” I asked to be shown the CCTV footage and they refused on the grounds of data protection. What utter rubbish.

I would never steal from anybody, but I wouldn't like to think that I could be treated like this down my local Tesco, humiliated in front of people I might know. A friend of mine had a really harrowing experience of being falsely accused of shoplifting in front of loads of people a few years ago. The shop admitted it was their mistake but even so she's never been able to bring herself to set foot in the place since and it upset her greatly.

I know that stores have to deal with shoplifting - and, frankly, it's in all our interests that they do because people who steal mean higher prices for the rest of us. I'd like to see, though, how many people they actually catch every year, the value of the goods stolen and how much their security costs in relation to that.  I don't think it's necessary to treat people in such a rude and thoughtless way, and they should remember that there's a principle of innocent until proven guilty.

I want to see that Tesco have changed their procedures and given Nancy a meaningful and very public apology. They have lost her custom, but until they can give me some reassurance on both of these counts, I won't be going back there either. As customers we should not put up with this nonsense from these large corporations. I have complained to Tesco via their online customer services form and I would urge you to do the same. It could be you they are picking on next.

The more people who contact them, the more likely they are to change their ways. As they say, every little helps.

Tesco don't get it on sexist marketing.

Remember I wrote the other day about how I'd complained to Tesco about the appalling gender stereotyping in their latest advertising campaign? It featured baby dolls as being "for girls" and transformers being "for boys". Well, I've had a reply which, if anything, has made me feel more angry than I did before. It was offensive and insulting to compare the marketing of toys to the marketing of clothes - and there's certainly a lot to be said about clothes marketing and the premature sexualisation of girls, but we'll leave that for the moment.

I'm sure that my avoiding buying toys in the place will not bother them one bit, but I am going to try to avoid them as much as possible now. After all, in the campaign to change our culture so that girls particularly don't have their ambitions limited by marketing which belongs half a century ago, every little helps.

Please feel free to spread the word far and wide to anyone who might be interested and suggest that they also complain to Tesco.

Below is their response in full, with my comments.

Dear Ms Linsay - it would have been nice if they could have spelled my name correctly

Thank you for your email and please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in my reply. Two days - not so bad. I can live with that. I would rather they had taken longer and taken my concerns more seriously. Given that this is word for word the response sent to Caroline, I'm not alone in being concerned about this campaign.

Part of the reason for this advert was to give grandparents and other people present ideas for the children they may buy presents for. It was merely meant as a guide for our customers and I'm sorry that the advert was not more explicit in that. Yes, but it could just have shown toys - for the children - without reference to gender. I'm sure grandparents know their grandchildren well enough to know what they like.

The format of this advert is in line with our current advertising campaign where we show a number of different products one by one. As these products appear on the screen, we provide a suggestion of who may like this item, or what the item can be used for. For example, towards the end of the Summer, when we started advertising School Uniforms, our adverts followed a very similar format and showed the Uniform "for Girls" and "for Boys". Please don't insult my intelligence. Boys and girls clearly wear different clothes. This is different. This is one of the biggest companies in the country suggesting that girls should play with dolls and boys should play with transformers. It suggests that these are appropriate presents, reinforcing ideas about gender that have no place in the 21st century. In my experience, both genders like playing with a wide range of toys. It's the sort of narrow minded ideas in your advertisement that lead to boys in particular getting a really hard time if they want to play with toys associated with girls.


While girls may not have such a hard time for playing with toys associated with boys, the ideas such stereotyping plants in their head about what is expected of them in life are, I think, quite dangerous. It's fine to play with dolls and dress up - but not to be told that that's what you should like, and should aspire to. It's not right in this day and age for either girls or boys to grow up with the idea that it's a woman's role alone to look after children, for example.

Our new advert is a continuation of this and was not meant to cause any offence to our customers. For example, when you look at our Tesco Direct catalogue, or any of our competitor catalogues, you'll see pictures of girls playing with traditionally "Girl Toys", and boys playing with traditionally "Boy Toys". Not in all of them. Some are a bit more with the times than Tesco. I think that as a leading company in this country you should play your part in consigning this type of stereotyping to history. Recently I wrote to another company about an outrageous piece of marketing on their website on which it promoted nurses' uniforms for girls and doctors' costumes for boys. The message that subliminally gives to young children is that it's appropriate for women to be in that subordinate roles and men to seek the more powerful careers. To limit girls' ambitions and expectations in that way is nothing short of wicked. Anyway, within days, I am pleased to say that they had changed their website and apologised.
However, we are fully aware that children choose their own toys and do not fit into boxes like this, and please let me assure you that we're not trying to say these items are "only" for one gender or another. We know that our customers are all individual, and make individual choices about the items they purchase, or in this case, the toys they play with. I think it's possible to give suggestions of presents for children without using gender - "for the creative child", "for the child who loves action toys" "for the child who loves dolls" "let your child explore the world of transformers/space/fairyland or whatever.

Therefore, I will pass your feedback on so that this can be considered for future advertisements, as I'd never want any of our customers to feel as though we are trying to stereotype children. Well, I don't think that's sufficient. I'd like to hear more about exactly who this is being passed to and I would actually like to talk to them about why I feel this sort of marketing is inappropriate. I think it's wrong to portray to girls that their role in life is to be maternal and passive, while portraying to boys that their role is to be more macho, or getting involved in  more challenging pursuits, or active. I think that for one of the largest companies in the UK to reinforce outdated ideas is wrong.


Your reply does not give me confidence that the company will take this issue seriously. I know several people who are actually choosing to shop at other shops as a result of your failure to take concerns about this advertising campaign seriously. I'm glad that there's a new alternative supermarket being built near me so that I have somewhere else to go.
I really hope that this information helps you and thank you for taking the time and trouble to get in touch with me about this. If I can help you any further in this matter, then please feel free to get back in touch with me.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me at customer.service@tesco.co.uk

Kind Regards
(name deleted to protect the guilty)
Customer Service Manager
Tesco Customer Service

Tesco fail children with gender specific marketing

Late last night I saw via author Keris Stainton's Twitter that Tesco's new advertising campaign includes more gender specific toy marketing.

She highlights a blog post by Caroline Smailes which outlines the reaction of a 7 year old to an advert that states that baby faced dolls are for girls and transformers are for boys.

Littlest watched the advert and got really bothered. Her response was, “But that’s not fair. Transformers are good for boys and for girls.” We had to explain to her that it was OK for her to like Transformers too. She didn’t understand why Tesco would be so mean.

Remember way back in July, when the Early Learning Centre's website were marketing nurses' uniforms at girls and doctor's costumes at boys? After a whole load of complaints, they backed down, apologised and changed the wording on their site. 

Can I point you in the direction of Tesco's customer services contact form so you can express your displeasure at this ridiculous piece of gender biased marketing? I think children should grow up being themselves and find their own interests without being bombarded with commercial material that tells them they should like certain things based on whether they're a boy or a girl.

I have a daughter whose interests over the years have included little plastic ponies with glittery hair, little fuzzy animals in collectible sets, planets, dinosaurs, Doctor Who and animal welfare of any description. I certainly would never want her curiosity, her horizons to be limited by arbitrary factors such as her gender.

I'm not as kind as Caroline. I won't be buying toys from Tesco until I have some indication from them that they are going to rethink this sort of thing, and I do have the alternative of a nice shiny new Sainsbury's opening in Livingston before Christmas so I may not have to bother with them at all. I think it's important that we challenge such outdated stereotyping where we find it.