Rose's Cantina

Embed from Getty Images Media Relations 101. Tell the truth. If you made a mistake, apologize. And for God's sake, stop lying. This morning, even the television anchors were having trouble keeping straight faces over the nose-stretchers being told by upper management at Loblaws. The company's flack was trying to put a tourniquet on the company's worst public relations bleed in recent memory. It was all over a memo  that was circulating which said that company decided to stop stocking French's Ketchup because it was "cannibalizing" sales of the company's house brand. "The memo was unofficial, misinformed and sent by a staff member prior to (Tuesday's) decision to restock French's ketchup," Kevin Groh, vice-president of corporate affairs and communication, said Wednesday in a statement. I assume that staffer is now stocking overnight shelves. Doesn't matter. The damage is done. Who you gonna believe, the f...

Update: Since this post was published, an internal memo from Loblaws, obtained by Canadian Press, revealed that French's ketchup was being pulled from stores to stop the "cannibalization " of the Loblaws' brand by the Canadian product. Loblaws denies this, of course. Maybe they're smarter, and dumber, than I gave them credit for. Loblaws had some 'splainin' to do yesterday after it pulled French's ketchup off the shelf because it wasn't a big seller. The people spoke, and the grocery chain had it back on the shelves before you could say, "Want fries with that?" Despite its claims that it sources local whenever possible, it's quite clear that the Westons don't give a rat's ass about where they get stuff. Either that, or they simply don't pay attention to the news. There was great uproar when Heinz took its act on the road and left Ontario throwing hundreds out of work. And yet, Heinz is still front and centre in L...