Morrisons marketing efforts have been ridiculed in the national press following a cast call for its new adverts. It was searching for real northerners, but not, the advert said, anyone 'from Liverpool'.
As mistakes go, this is pretty big. Morrisons heartland is in the north of England, and as The Sun will know, it does not pay to upset those living in Liverpool.
But should the marketing team be blamed?
It is, surely, impossible to conceive that Morrisons marketing chiefs told its creative teams 'no scousers', so surely the blame must then lie with its creative agencies.
Did they really understand their client and the environment in which it operates - it seems not?
But that would really be too easy. A business gets the marketing team - and the creative agencies - they deserve. All parties will face some very uncomfortable days ahead.
Morrisons has incurred the wrath of an entire city after a callout was issued for actors with northern accents to feature in a campaign for the supermarket specifying that “nobody from Liverpool” should apply. The controversial requirement featured in an advert on the Casting Networks International website, used by actors looking for work. Published last week, it asked for actors with “northern” accents for a publicity campaign fronted by “proper working-class people”.
