Nay, lad: Tesco denies that every little bit of poetry helps
Has Tesco turned to poetry in its efforts to reassure shoppers upset by the horsemeat scandal? That is the question the London Evening Standard asked yesterday, after reporting the view of an academic that a recent double page ad placed by the supermarket giant in local and national newspapers amounted to “a piece of concrete poetry”. The text, which was set left and outlined the improvements Tesco plans to make on meat sourcing, appears to have a verse-like rhythm. A Tesco spokesman denied that the ad was designed as a poem but Dr Christopher Burlinson, English professor at Jesus College, Cambridge, said the text was “a piece of concrete poetry, as well as a clever piece of advertising.
“It’s written by someone who is thinking hard about rhetorical structure and the poetic line. It humbly lowers its voice, reassures us that all will be well, and asks us to keep calm and carry on buying.”
These are Tesco's words .. make your own minds up:
"The past few weeks have made us realise
that we really need to find a way to source
more of our meat from closer to home.
We need to work with our farmers,
get our heads together,
and figure out the best way to make this happen.
Already, all of our beef, be it fresh, frozen or in ready meals
comes from the UK and Ireland.
Next, we're moving on to chicken.
From July all our fresh chicken will be from UK farms.
We are the biggest customer of UK agriculture,
we need to be their biggest supporters too.
This is it.
We are changing."
