“Being a good old-fashioned Capitalist, and having been subjected to one too many iPhone pictures of Gap wearing longhairs sipping from Starbucks Big ānā Talls, whilst protesting globalisation, the Fool is not the sort of chap given to angst over the latest example of imagined corporate hypocrisy.
“Given that the depth of understanding of the real effects of global capitalism by the perpetually agitated rent-a-mob who usually attach themselves to protests is measurable only in Pictometres, I tend shrug, pass go, and collect another Ā£200.
“But just occasionally comes an example of Newtonās third law in action which, despite Paradise/Panama papers, corporate morality, social justice and other lurid leftist fantasies which seem to dominate our world, makes me think that natural selection might still win out in the end.
“Paperchase is a UK company which flogs cards, paper, artist materials and the like. The company has been around since the late 60s, and during its history, has had quite a journey, passing through many hands before landing with its present owners, the private equity company Primary Capital, and its board of directors. So far, so err, un-station(a)ery.
“Because of the number of similar companies out there, itās a competitive industry, which means that in order to stand out, the company find it necessary to advertise. This they do through various publications and trade journals, and other than a bit of a to-do about stealing an artistās work in 2010, the company have been pretty uncontentious. Until mid-November this year that is, when, as part of a promotional push neatly timed for the run up to Christmas, they decided to offer the readers of the Daily Mail some free wrapping paper. Ā And suddenly things started to go rapidly upside down.
“StopFundingHate is a campaign which, depending on your viewpoint, either āaims to stop companies from advertising in, and thus providing funds for, certain UK newspapersā, or is āa small group of hard left Corbynist individuals seeking to suppress legitimate debate and impose their views on the media, who encourage people to influence the content of newspapers they donāt read themselvesā. This group, as is their want, took particular umbrage at Paperchaseās decision to help Daily Mail readers out with their Christmas plans, Facebook and Twitter literally catching fire (stop it, youāre better than that. Ed.) with, it is estimated, over 200 posts from SFHās members decrying the companyās promotional efforts.
“Now under normal circumstances, sufficient virtue would have been seen to have been signalled, and the grown-ups would shake their heads and move on with their lives. However, in an extraordinary turn of events, Paperchase decided to take to Twitter to apologise for their actions, and promised they āwouldnāt ever do it againā. That is, they promised never to again advertise in Britainās second largest selling daily paper (circulation 1.5million). One would also imagine, by extension, their new found piety will also prevent them from doing the same in the largest selling, the Sun, and 9th best-selling, the Daily Express, (combined circulation 2.1million) the two other expressly stated targets of SFHās campaign. (In addition, one must assume that they would also wish to avoid any connection with the worldās most visited English language newspaper website, MailOnline).
Weāve listened to you about this weekendās newspaper promotion. We now know we were wrong to do this – weāre truly sorry and we wonāt ever do it again. Thanks for telling us what you really think and we apologise if we have let you down on this one. Lesson learnt.
ā Paperchase (@FromPaperchase) November 20, 2017
“As corporate strategies go, this might yet turn out to be a move rivalled only by Gerald Ratnerās description of his own Jewellery chainās products as ācrapā, which, instead of seeing him hailed as a ābit of a oneā, Ā proceeded to rapidly send his company to the brink of bankruptcy.
“As anybody but Paperchaseās PR department might have foreseen, those readers of the various publications which Paperchase apologised for associating themselves with (thatās approximately 3.6 million daily readers, plus another 16 or so million website visitors) didnāt take too kindly to the companyās decision to effectively brand them as āsupporters of hateā. A campaign to boycott the companyās stores followed, the results of which will no doubt be seen when the company next report their sales figures. Ā Ā
“Now the fact that Paperchase have decided to effectively side with a group of a couple of hundred shouty protestors against the content of certain newspapers is not actually the most stupid thing they have done in this instance. Thatās obviously a subjective judgement, dependent upon oneās own engagement with reality. There are however questions that need to be asked:
“If the company is truly as pious as they obviously believe they are, what were they doing advertising in the Mail in the first place? Either nobody in their media-buying department has ever read that particular paper (unlikely) or they chose to ignore its traditional content in favour of the commercial reality of reaching the maximum number of potential customers. In which case their subsequent apology makes them look both stupid, and unprincipled.
“Secondly, was spending a fortune on advertising that has ultimately resulted in branding millions of potential customers as āfunders of hateā, and in turn causing them to boycott your company, the best use of precious company cash?
“But perhaps, if this does indeed turn into a āRatnerā moment for the company and sales crash as millions of people decide to shop elsewhere, the stupid will have been strongest with the co-owners of the business, the Board of Directors. They will have sacrificed not only their jobs, but also their investment, under the belief that a feigned show of morality, rather than good old-fashioned profit, would pay the bills.
“A company called Paperchase as a metaphor for why the finance industry might actually survive all this nonsense.Ā Look in your dictionary, youāll find that under irony.”
Ā You can read the Fool’s column every month in Connect magazine, here.
