On-line meals supply platform Deliveroo has vowed to evaluate its processes after its try at personalised unsolicited mail backfired spectacularly amid claims {that a} handwritten Valentine’s Day provide was “creepy”.
The marketing campaign, which solely ran in London, featured a promotion providing reductions on flowers and was addressed to ‘My Valentine’ in a pretend, handwritten-style letter, with a printed stamp.
The missive featured the headline “Roses are pink, violets are blue, discover your native florist on Deliveroo” and supplied a £15 low cost at recipients’ native flower outlets. On the reverse, the “handwritten” textual content acknowledged: “Hey there Lovebird, Valentine’s Day coming in sizzling? Don’t panic – we’ve acquired a deal that as candy as a rom-com ending.”
However, in line with a report within the Impartial, some recipients had been lower than impressed, with one particular person on Reddit branding the mailing “dastardly”.
They continued: “My postie was like ‘oooh that’s thrilling’. Hope he by no means asks the place it was from as I’m too ashamed to confess my solely valentines was a 15% off flowers voucher.
One other wrote: “From the surface it seems like a generic Valentine’s card with a handwritten deal with and the title is ‘my valentine’. You possibly can solely inform it’s an advert while you open it. Somebody’s getting stitched up with that one for positive.”
And one other consumer on X posted: “S*** myself at getting a handwritten nameless valentine solely to open it and or not it’s from Deliveroo ???!?!??!”
In the meantime, columnist Emma Clarke branded the letter “the creepiest Valentine’s Day card of my life”.
It isn’t recognized whether or not the envelope carried the necessart singage of “advertising and marketing materials enclosed” however in response, Deliveroo mentioned: “We totally recognize that the copy on the handwritten envelopes for our flower low cost promotion was misjudged.
“While the contents of the envelopes had been clearly branded and the copy was inclusive to each these treating themselves or others, we apologise for any upset this promotion has precipitated and are reviewing our inner processes.”
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Charlie McKelvey