A Waitrose billboard erected in a wonky fashion as a marketing stunt was fenced off by council staff amid public safety fears.
The retailer erected an askew billboard on Lindore Road, in Wandsworth, south-west London, in a nod to its falling prices.
The billboard, depicting a downwards arrow flanked either side by food items, was accompanied bytext that read: “Well, this is good – new lower prices on hundreds of your favourites.”
While the message to customers was that prices were on the way down, this did not translate across the board, with public concern prompting Wandsworth council to erect fencing around the billboard.
The move provoked a lighthearted reaction from the retailer on X.
In a post, which tagged the council, it said: “Thanks for the swift action but while our prices are falling rapidly, our billboard certainly isn’t!”
Hi @wandbc – thanks for the swift action but while our prices are falling rapidly, our billboard certainly isn’t! #noneedforbollards pic.twitter.com/mXXbFZL3RA
— Waitrose & Partners (@waitrose) April 25, 2024
\n\n"}}” config=”{"renderingTarget":"Web","darkModeAvailable":false,"assetOrigin":"https://assets.guim.co.uk/"}”>
In a separate post to the official Specsavers X account, Waitrose asked: “One for you guys?”
The council confirmed to the Guardian on Saturday that the barriers had since been removed.
A council spokesperson said: “We were alerted to this unusual advert by a concerned member of the public and while we could see it might be deliberately set up to look that way, we thought ot better not take any chances with public safety so put up some barriers to be on the safe side.
“Once we’d spoken to Waitrose and established it was designed to look this way we removed the barriers straight away.”
Earlier this month Waitrose announced plans to reduce the price of more than 200 “weekly shop” products. This is the fifth time the retailer, which is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, has announced cuts since February 2023.
It has reportedly invested £130m over this period. Following the latest round of cuts, the Waitrose commercial director, Charlotte Di Cello, said: “We are focusing on even more weekly-shop staples as well as a large range of organic ingredients which our customers love.
“We continue to offer market-leading quality on our higher welfare products, such as chicken and outdoor-bred pork alongside our best seasonal fruit and vegetables.”