Please, sir, I want some more …
Please, sir, I want some more … pleaded Oliver Twist.
Desperate with hunger and misery the poor lad risked the wrath of the workhouse master when he asked for another bowl of thin watery gruel.
For many of us, thankfully, this vision of Dickensian Britain is far removed from life today as adverts for elastic waisted trousers testify.
For all my sins, food is a terrible weakness proved by the (all too frequent) urge to reach for my looser trousers.
Which is why there’s a mixture of excitement and dread when a new TV food programme comes on air because I know there’ll be trouble ahead.
One of the TV chefs I most enjoy following is Rick Stein and not always for obvious reasons.
His programmes are so watchable because they’re part foodie heaven and part travelogue.
But what we don’t always get to see is that his business empire also has one of the slickest promotional operations running quietly and efficiently behind the scenes.
Which is why I was intrigued when an email popped into my inbox saying that this was the …
… “Last chance to pre-order Food Stories” – his latest book which was published on the 12th of September.
Crikey, I thought. The book’s only been out a couple of weeks and now it’s being withdrawn.
However, what the promotions guys had meant to say was that this was the last chance to order “Signed Copies”.
If you were compiling a list of the greatest slip-ups in marketing history this one wouldn’t anywhere near it.
Not by a country mile.
But when one of the slickest operations out there misses something like this there’s a lesson there for us all.
The moral in the story?
And that’s to run a second or even third pair of eyes over your proofs before someone gets a little over-excited and presses the “ignite mission launch” button.
Have a great week.
Alec