Colin & Cuthbert

[Comefromaway]

I have to admit that I've been loving Aldi's twitter feed the last few days along with all the other companies that have joined in.

But now they have appealed to M & S to raise money for charity not lawyers by donating all profits from a limited edition Cuthbert to two cancer charities, one they are linked with and one M & S are linked with.

It's not putting M & S in a good light to be honest.

The best comment I saw was a guy replying to M&S saying “don’t get too big for your boots M&S, Toblerone may have something to say about your Mountain Bar!”

I have also moved to Aldi over the last year. The Sunday Times regularly rate their wine as best so went into try before Christmas, tried some of their food and was very pleasantly surprised. Much better quality and value than the big 4 supermarkets.

Also to the pp who thinks you would only shop at Aldi if you are down to your last pound, that is not the case for me and other people I know. It is because I genuinely prefer it

@emilyfrost

Yeah ok sure run with those OP 😂

More than ever this just shows Aldi to be the awful retailer everyone always suspected it was.

They copy, get caught out and are now trying to play the victim. Shame on them. I would judge anyone who gave them business after this.

You crack on judging everyone who shops at Aldi then, just sounds like an excuse to be a snob to me 🥱

This whole thing seems really odd. I get that the cakes look very similar and take PP's point about the people consuming these products are often not the ones who bought it...
But it's a fucking caterpillar cake. There are limits as to how much the quality will vary. Surely if you want to buy one you go to whichever supermarket you usually do? If it was some sort of expensive luxury product I'd understand that people might be more discerning about where they bought it but are there really many people who've tasted Cuthbert at their office party/child's birthday and either

1. Mistaken it specifically for Colin (assuming that they either shop mostly in M&S and are unaware of the many varieties of caterpillar cake, or are for some reason familiar enough with caterpillar cakes that they recognise it as the near identical Colin rather than the slightly different Cecil/Clyde) and, disliking it, make a conscious decision not to buy a Colin the Caterpillar cake again.

Or

2. Mistake a Colin for a Cuthbert (being more familiar with Aldi stock), enjoy it and wrongfully attribute their enjoyment to Aldi, thus depriving M&S of the small possibility that they'd give enough of a crap to go to a different, more expensive shop to buy a cake with a face on and costing them a few quid?

They copy, get caught out and are now trying to play the victim. Shame on them. I would judge anyone who gave them business after this.

As a pp said, what of M&S's mountain bar which is clearly a rip off of Toblerone? I suppose it's ok for them to copy as they're more classy/refined expensive?

Sorry but I will continue to give Aldi business and can't wait to get a Cuthbert cake when the charity limited edition version comes out next month. So judge away, sweetie

I shop in aldi , lidl etc but generally speaking m& s food wins hands down in flavour but it costs more

Has this been posted yet??

Very good......

twitter.com/childcare/status/1383733280403378178?s=21

@BloomingBlooms

Aldi's social media is brilliant, but it's a very aggressive way of tackling the issue. I can't see any self respecting judge thinking it's funny. It's a risky tactic, but (as I'm not a judge) I do find it very funny.

My thoughts exactly. I do think Aldi have been witty and have been chucking at the memes! However, trademark infringement is actually not a laughing matter and if this gets as far as a court hearing, I expect the judge might have something to say about the fact Aldi basically think being accused of unlawful behaviour is funny.

The charity thing from Aldi isn’t funny though. I don’t know if their Cuthbert is unlawful or not - a court would have to decide that. But to try to pressure M&S to stand down by saying let’s donate to charity instead is taking the public for idiots. Let’s be honest Aldi make enough money to pay for the litigation and donate Cuthbert profits to charity.

M&S have responded to the charity suggestion by saying great idea to raise money for charity - use your own product such as Kevin the carrot cake.

People are posting pictures of branded products that M & S have copied all over twitter!

A very low blow from Aldi to start going on about charity, do they really think the public are all idiots? It was all vaguely funny until then, now it’s just distasteful.

And yes I’m with M&S, if Aldi want to donate to charity so much who is stopping them? They don’t need to tell other companies when and how to donate.

The other caterpillar cakes look quite different
They really don't and the premise of all these cakes are the same.
Why are any of the others caterpillars?! There's are millions of animals and they all chose a caterpillar

Aldi are cheeky with some products. They are all about selling comparable products for less money. I remember their advertising campaign with “I like this and I also like this” for example with the Lindt style bunnies and all of the products were so similar. I have often asked myself how they get away with it.
Cuthbert is really very similar to Colin and I can see why M&S have wanted to take legal action over it. To M&S Colin is a mini brand of his own.
However, the team at Aldi are absolute geniuses with how they’ve turned it around on M&S. Who isn’t going to support the sale of Cuthbert now?! #CaterpillarsforCancer
The question is, how long before they take on Percy Pig?!

Food manufacturing is really interesting. A lot of the same companies make for a number of retailers. Some of these companies already sell products under their own brand, e.g. Foxes Biscuits who make for M&S and, I think, Tesco. So the supermarkets aren't necessarily copying the manufacturer. Kellogg's shot themselves in the foot years ago by refusing to make cereals for retailers. So the retailers got other manufacturers to make similar products instead.

@emilyfrost

Yeah ok sure run with those OP 😂

More than ever this just shows Aldi to be the awful retailer everyone always suspected it was.

They copy, get caught out and are now trying to play the victim. Shame on them. I would judge anyone who gave them business after this.

I'd love to see the evidence for Aldi being the awful retailer everyone always suspected it was Judging by how busy their stores are, that's nonsense.

I think Aldi should change Cuthbert's face to a middle class gloat and his name to Emma. Emma Ness.

@Comefromaway

People are posting pictures of branded products that M & S have copied all over twitter!

I'm not on twitter so can't see them, but weren't M&S the ones who were caught out when someone licked the chocolate off one of their 'super chocolaty lovely luxury biscuits' to find a custard cream underneath?

It's all ridiculous, everyone knows how Aldi operate. If you read the comparison blind tasting reviews online, sometimes Aldi products are found to be nicer, sometimes not.

Either people shop in Aldi, so know they're eating an Aldi cake, or if they eat cake bought by someone else, M&S are really stretching it with their argument that someone might assume a cake is from M&S but be disappointed by the quality when as the plethora of caterpillar cakes illustrates, it could be from any supermarket. Many people would struggle to pick the genuine Colin out of a line up, because they're all pretty similar.

I'm with M&S all the way. It's a slippery slope when it comes to intellectual property.

I realise that everyone can have a laugh because it is just a caterpillar cake, but it's theft.

Do people think that the development, research, branding and advertising of Colin cost nothing? Have you any idea how much that brand is worth?

And then along comes someone and just copies it, and that's fine because it's just a cake, and M&S is a bit posh.

It will have taken a huge amount of work to get Colin to his position in the retail sector, (and the hearts of harassed birthday party throwers), and the general public will have no idea; it doesn't just happen.

Aldi are being disingenuous and pretty despicable,

@ClarrieGrundy I am sure the product developers at Toblerone, Mr Kipling and Nestle have spent time building their brands of chocolate bars, French fancies and walnut whips which all sit in your local branch of M&S in M&S packaging

That is why Aldi is getting support around this as lots of double standards at play

I have been supplying sandwiches to various consumers for 30 years.

Is M&S going to sue me too?

But the Sainsbury’s one is just as similar, and the Waitrose isn’t far off. The other supermarkets have brighter coloured faces so easier to tell apart.

Why Aldi and not Sainsbury’s or Waitrose?

As a side note, anyone else old enough to remember Penguin successfully getting Asda’s “Puffin bars” removed from sale?

I'm surprised is taken this long for someone to sue

The names of the dupes are funny but I agree with a pp that straight up copying isn't funny

[quote Womencanlift]@ClarrieGrundy I am sure the product developers at Toblerone, Mr Kipling and Nestle have spent time building their brands of chocolate bars, French fancies and walnut whips which all sit in your local branch of M&S in M&S packaging

That is why Aldi is getting support around this as lots of double standards at play[/quote]
Exactly. M & S rip off toblerones, crunchies and walnut whips. What's the difference?

The cynic in me says Aldi and M&S have whipped up the idea of this feud together to promote both brands

The difference is the packaging and the name.

Dress it up all you want retailers. At the end of the day it's a Swiss roll they're charging up to £7 for. If M and S want my money I'll take a Cappuccino roll any day of the week. Discontinue that and I will riot. I thank you.