The following advert appeared on my Facebook today…

The video at the bottom is a little bizarre and it’s simply an animation of that static image but with the two bottom lines appearing, one at a time. A static image of animated GIF would have worked just as well.

Anyway, I always like to look into these things as I often find, particularly when it comes to awards, that they’re not always what they seem.

The Baking Industry awards, though, are real and not owned or even sponsored by Tesco, which is a good start, and occurred about 3 weeks ago. And, yes, Tesco did indeed win the category of ‘Supermarket bakery business of the year’. But what does that mean? Well, that’s a good question, bearing in mind how Tesco is advertising that on Facebook. However, note EXACTLY what they’re saying…

‘A tiger bloomer that’s earned its stripes’, said Tesco.

SAID TESCO. Not the Baking Industry awards, which is what you think at first.

But what did the Baking Industry awards say (this site is relevant as it is apparently behind the awards)?

“Customer focused, and commercially astute, the concept stores delivered a relevant experience, creating a warm look and feel”, said one (judge). “Innovative features for sampling were integrated into the selling space, with useful on-shelf descriptions and improved packaging to help customers choose and use products wisely.”

NOTHING about the quality of the products in the bakery, this is simply saying they’re good at selling them. Which is not what the Tesco advert was trying to suggest.

Nice try Tesco but, yeah, the judges said you have nice bakeries but NOTHING about what you sell in them. Better luck next year.