Eire: UNICEF Ireland Slam Tesco use of Charity Slogan for Marketing Purposes
Unicef Ireland has accused Tesco of capitalising on the name of one of its "longest running and best-known campaigns", in place since 1987 by utilising the "change for good" slogan.
"Change for Good" is a campaign which Unicef has run with a number of major airlines worldwide whereby travellers deposit their foreign currency change at deposit points in major airports. British Airways has raised £26 million for the United Nations children's charity via the scheme. Meanwhile Irish carrier Aer Lingus raised 6.25 million Euro in the first ten years it was involved in the scheme.
Tesco are using the "Change for Good" as a simple marketing slogan and this has inflamed Tesco Ireland executive director Melanie Verwoerd. She said:
"it is the first time in Unicef's history that a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalise on one of our campaigns and subsequently damage an income stream which several of our programmes for children are dependent on".
Ms Verwoerd also said "we fail to understand why a company with a multimillion-euro advertising budget finds it necessary to use a children's charities slogan which we have spend years developing".
Tesco have said they had no knowledge of the Unicef slogan when they set up the marketing initiative. However given the length of time it has been in use and high profile of the Unicef campaign this excuse seems scarcely credible.
Link to UNICEF Change for Good campaign here:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
25/07/09
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