Sep
14
English apples and Pears; British flag
Filed Under Products | 8 Comments
http://www.englishapplesandpears.co.uk/
Date: 7 September 2009 18:23
From: <***@***.uk>
To: abarlow@clara.co.uk
CC: <***@***.uk >
Subject: English apples and pears
Dear Sirs,
I would just like to point out that your logo has the Union flag within
the outline of the English the fruit you promote.
The correct flag for English produce and England is the Cross of St
George.
Yours faithfully.
–
Date: 14 September 2009 09:48
From: Adrian Barlow <abarlow@clara.co.uk>
To: ***@***.uk
Subject: Re: English apples and pears
Dear
Thank you for your note. England is part of the Union. We wish to be as
inclusive as possible and therefore we are pleased to use the Union Jack
which has wide consumer recognition. Thank you for writing to me.
Regards
Adrian Barlow
—– Original Message —–
From: <***@***.uk >
To: <abarlow@clara.co.uk>
Cc: <***@***.uk >
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2009 5:48 PM (My note My original email was sent 07.09.09)
Subject: Re: English apples and pears
Jul
11
Dairy Crest turncoats
Filed Under Products | 2 Comments
Country Life English Butter: Keeping the locals happy. Are you?
This was what they said before they changed their Country Life butter from English to British.
The advert consists of images of Country Life butter. It’s not very clear in this low resolution image but the packaging does say English butter. Superimposed on the image are the statement and question, WE’RE KEEPING THE LOCALS HAPPY. ARE YOU?
The text in the left sidebar reads;
Country Life is the No. 1 English butter brand.
77% of people think local food tastes better – one reason why we are the fastest growing butter brand.
82% of consumers would buy more locally produced food if it was labelled as such.
Country Life is back on TV as part of a £6m marketing spend including a new national press campaign.
keep your customers happy with the taste of Country Life.
Nov
3
Say cheese…
Filed Under Products, Tesco | Leave a Comment
A great post by David at A national conversation for England on Tesco’s deceitful product labelling.
Oct
15
Dairy Crest reply
Filed Under Products | 4 Comments
The following message just arrived from Dairy Crest regarding the re-branding of Country Life butter from “English Butter” to “British butter”.
Dear xxxx
Thank you for contacting us about Country Life. I’m sorry that the change in the description from English to British has caused you some concern.
Country Life is proud of its heritage and we have always communicated ‘English butter’ on our packs as Country Life butter is indeed churned in Shropshire, England.
All of the milk we use to make Country Life butter comes from within the United Kingdom, and whilst the majority comes from England, some may come from outside of England, such as from Wales or Scotland.
We thought that saying “made in England with British milk” would be confusing, and therefore decided to change the description to ‘British butter’. We feel it more simply, accurately & honestly portrays Country Life butter’s origins.
I can assure you there are no changes in our manufacturing process or supply, and Country Life is still churned with pride by our Shropshire buttermakers.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us. I hope that I have addressed your concerns and that you will continue to enjoy Country Life.
Let’s just run through that.
Well it looks to me like they’ve opened with a whopper! Dairy Crest claims to be “proud of its heritage” I see no evidence for that statement. As the Secret Person pointed out; “the brand Country Life used to be owned, till 2004, by the English Butter Marketing Company” which as far as I’m concerned makes its heritage none other than English.
The justification for the move from “English” to “British” butter is that some small but unspecified portion of of the milk used in production comes from outside England and therefore it makes more sense to label the product as British. To describe it as “made in England with British milk” would be too confusing for the tiny minds of the public at large.
Personally I’d be happy with just “made in England”.
So what now? I think we need to follow this up and see if we can get a definitive answer to what proportion of the milk used comes from outside England. If it’s 2% I’d urge Dairy Crest to stop using that 2% and keep Country Life English!
As ever – please let us know what you think and we’ll post updates when we have them.
Oct
8
Boycott Dairy Crest
Filed Under Products | 4 Comments
We followed up our initial email with this one.
Dear Mr xxxx
Could you tell me whether the sourcing of Milk for Country Life Butter specifically comes from inside or outside England? If from outside is this a recent change of sourcing? Until recently the Butter was “English Butter”. As far as I can tell the farmers on the Country Life website are all based in England.
You said “A British claim enables us to credibly use the British flag within communications without causing confusion. The British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag.”
This is interesting. Can you please tell me how the British flag has a “more positive association with consumers than the English flag”? I know of no negative implications to the Cross of St George – would you mind explaining your thinking behind that statement – for our readers? Are you perhaps referring to consumers outside England?
kind regards
No reply unfortunately. So no explanation to the bizarre view that:
The British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag.
It seems pretty obvious to me they must be referring to consumers outside England. This particular issue isn’t even really about the flag it’s more fundamental than that it’s about the word “English” it’s about the concept of “English”. Dairy Crest are essentially saying that – Britain has a more positive association with consumers than England!
Dairy Crest is an English company. Country life is English butter produced in England. Their decision to replace “English Butter” with “British Butter” is their choice and their right. But I find it really sad that an English company would even consider distancing itself from England.
Personally I think it’s a very bad marketing decision by Dairy Crest. A campaign celebrating the Englishness of their butter would have had a very positive effect on sales.
Anyway from now on I will never knowingly buy any Dairy Crest product until they start producing English Country Life butter again. I practical terms this means cancelling my daily milk delivery and stopping buying Cathedral City cheese. I know that many of our supporters feel the same.
Boycott Dairy Crest
Boycott Dairy Crest
Here are some Dairy Crest products you might consider boycotting:
Cathedral City Cheese range, Vitalite margarine, St Ivel spread range, Willow, Golden Churn, Clover, Utterly Butterly, Frijj milkshakes.
Oct
1
Country Life – but which country?
Filed Under Products | 22 Comments
You’ll never put a better bit of British butter on your knife. Trouble is that until very recently it was English not British butter.
Dairy Crest have rebranded their top selling Country Life butter. They’ve removed “English Butter” and replaced it with “British Butter”.
What’s behind the move?
Have Dairy Crest started sourcing their butter outside England? Which would obviously be bad news for English farmers.
Or are Dairy Crest worried that labelling Country Life English reduces sales outside England?
Or do they have to label as British to get the Red Tractor assurance mark? The implication being that a tentacle of the British Government is behind the change – are English taxes being used hurt English farmers?
We will email and ask them as time allows. If anyone else is interested contacting Dairy Crest their email address is consumercare@dairycrest.co.uk.
The under construction Country Life website doesn’t supply any answers but looks to have gone very British indeed, with the inclusion of a Buy British campaign. Be careful – it’s very easy to accidentally make the pledge!
Via The Cross of St George Forum H/t Fenn
Update 03-10-08
Fair Flags sent the following email to Dairy Crest about the re-branding of Country Life. Their response is below that.
Our email:
To whom it may concern
In my capacity as Secretary of the Fair Flags Campaign http://fairflags.org.uk/blog/ I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about your re-branding of the Country Life line – which came to our attention via a supporter.
- Would you mind explaining for our readers the thinking for the decision to replace “English Butter” with “British Butter” on your packaging?
- Have you started sourcing Country Life butter outside England? Looking at the Country Life website http://www.enjoycountrylife.co.uk/farmers.php it seems not.
- Was the move enforced in any way through the Red Tractor accreditation scheme?
- Are there any other factors behind the switch of description?
The Fair Flags campaign is committed to encouraging Supermarkets and Producers to label their products accurately in terms of country of origin.
Kind regards
Dairy Crests response:
Good Morning
Our milk comes from all over Britain, not only England and therefore we cannot make claims that the milk is English. Having British and English on pack together or within advertising messages is confusing for the consumer.
A British claim enables us to credibly use the British flag within communications without causing confusion. The British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag.
Thank you for your E-Mail about Dairy Crest Country Life.
I hope this has answered your query.
We’ve followed up to find out more about this “the British flag has a more positive association with consumers than the English flag” for the life of me I can’t see why the flag of the BNP is more positive than the Cross of St George!
Fairflags badges
Boycot Dairycrest
