Waitrose’s wonky billboard stunt fenced off by overzealous council

Rachel Slater
·2-min read
Wandsworth council put up a line of orange bollards and traffic cones underneath the billboard after being alerted by a concerned member of the public
Wandsworth council zoned off the area underneath the billboard after being alerted by a concerned member of the public

An overzealous council overreacted to a Waitrose publicity stunt by erecting a safety barrier around a billboard constructed to look as though it was about to fall from the side of a building.

Wandsworth council, in south London, was alerted to the slanted advertisement by a concerned member of the public and proceeded to fence off the area over worries for “public safety”.

The council said it did not want “to take any chances” following the complaint and so put up a line of orange barriers and traffic cones to “be on the safe side”.

Posting on Twitter, Waitrose jokingly thanked the council for its “swift action”.

The safety measures were removed once the council caught wind of the “unusual” advertisement stunt.

A spokesman for the council 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 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.”

A Waitrose spokesman also said: “This billboard was part of a creative marketing campaign to communicate hundreds of falling prices. Though many prices have come down – we are very happy to reassure residents of Clapham that our billboard certainly hasn’t.”

The 3D billboard is part of a new advertisement campaign by the supermarket to promote price cuts across hundreds of its products.

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