to ask you to *please* phone/email Morrisons & complain about their ridiculous 'feed vegetarians fish' advert

[ReallyNotTotallyStupidPromise]

Morrisons customer services number is : 0845 611 6111

Customer services site for online complaints is HERE

Vegetarians don't eat FISH - 3 year olds can grasp this concept, so why are Morrisons struggling with it?

I am coming to this late, but I have only just heard the advert. (There's one thread about it already, but it's just a discussion.)

I would love as many people as possible to phone/email/contact Morrisons and complain (on behalf of us vegetarians, even if you aren't one!)

I rang their Customer Services dept. the woman was lovely, but she hadn't even heard the ad let alone had any complaints, she went to speak to her Manager and when she came back she said there had been 'One or two complaints about it' and that she realised why I was frustrated by it.

I was pleasant and polite, I didn't rant as I wanted to but I did explain that BIG companies like theirs advertising like this makes people think that vegetarians must eat fish and that fish is suitable for vegetarians, so it's OK to put fish/fish products in meals etc. I explained that if it happend to me, I would be very ill.

I said I was amazed that such a BIG company could get an advert so wrong and wondered how it got to air?

I also said that it means I now no longer trust Morrisons labeling for vegetarians and would no longer be shopping there as it's time consuming to read all of the ingredients when you can't trust 'suitable for vegetarians' labeling - much easier to shop at Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose or ASDA - where you can trust their labeling :)

Fish is not suitable for vegetarians. Vegetarians DO NOT eat fish

There is no debate - people who eat fish are NOT vegetarian.

I can't find the three fishes on their site! Bah. However, their veggie curries look awfully good!

that's ridiculous

No one who saw and approved the advert thought actually... vegetarians do not eat animals?

The UK has so many great meat alternatives it is ridiculous to pimp out fish to vegetarians, I do think part of the problem is people who eat fish callin themselves vegetarian

Sorry that I posted and ran!

I had a friend on the phone for 3 hours - yes 3 hours, we do love a catch up!! Then when I came back to MN I completely forgot I'd started it. Sorry!!

It definitely said vegetarian on the radio.

Morrisons FB page has only two posts about this, but with a fair whack of comments under each. But then again, most of the comments are along the line of "so what?" Morrisons say that the ad said "non-meat eaters". But fish were made of meat last time I checked.

Thank you Baubles Mwahhhh & you Caja :)

Exactly dingdong - hope you are better soon!!

BridgetBidet Are you vegetarian? Do you understand how it's getting more common for people to assume that vegetarians eat fish? That leads to both the annoying situation where you turn up somewhere, having made it known you are vegetarian and get served fish

Annie - I don't 'do' facebook, so couldn't look at their page.

It didn't say non meat eaters on the radio, I can assure you of that :) I only 'heard' the advert because they said 'vegetarian' and my ears pricked up - then they went on about fish

It's like anything where a minority is involved. Others just take a 'so what' approach to it :(

Done. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

I wrote:

Vegetarians don't eat fish. You do know this, don't you? Or were fish reclassified as a vegetable and no one told me?
Please, you are doing vegetarians a huge disservice, bandying about this nonsense that vegetarians eat fish. I cannot trust your labelling instore now, and will shop elsewhere unless I hear this advert has been retracted, and an apology and correction aired.

If I could hear the advert I'd happily complain, but I can't without hearing it first hand - sorry.

I'm with Acky123....I need to hear it really before I can phone and have a rant. I've been a strict vegetarian for 25 years and am finally finding shopping less of a nightmare now that (almost) everything is clearly labelled vegetarian. Only for Morrisons to come along and feck it up.

Thank you WhatWouldSantaDo.

Acky/Whether - that's fine. But I can't deliver it to you - you'll just have to listen to the radio I guess. I was listening to Magic.

I don't really understand why you need to hear it first. There are quite a few people on MN who have heard it - so it's clear I'm not making it up - but what you do about it is your choice entirely :)

No no no, Thank YOU, ReallyNotTotallyStupidPromise. This kind of thing is one of my bugbears.

Has anyone told the Vegetarian Society?

What does the ad say, exactly?

Maybe it was supposed to be a joke. ..

WhatWouldSantaDo - I tried to this afternoon, I got as far as the website and 'searching' morrisons (to see if anything had already been started) but then ended up getting distracted by RL and didn't get back to it.

Feck - something along the lines of Christmas Dinner being boring for vegetarians so buy their Three FISH Dish and delight them.

ll31 - No - it wasn't a joke.

They changed it to none meat eaters after complaints.

According to their fb page...I haven't heard it...

People assume vegetarians eat fish because many people who claim to be vegetarians do eat fish unfortunately.
My DN used to claim he was a veggie and still eat white meat but he has since gone fully veg.
I can't count the times someone has told me they are veggie then tucked into salmon volauvant.
I have heard chefs complaining that they have customers ring up and asked about vegetarian option, so they have put on extra choice for the booking, for the customer to turn up and order the trout

Done. Makes me soooo cross. DH vegetarian and the amount of times he has been presented with fish....! Actually one time also
united airlines told him to pick the bits of chicken out of their pasta bake...sigh.

"I am deeply concerned about your radio campaign regarding the 3 fish dish for vegetarian Christmas dinner. My husband is vegetarian. Vegetarians do not eat fish (although some people who do not eat red meat for health reasons, unhelpfully call themselves vegetarian. Actually, they are pescatarian, or pollo-pescatarian). This calls into question all of your product labelling, and becomes a question of trust. What other products have you labelled or marketed as vegetarian that actually contain fish or meat products? I will not be able to shop at Morrisons until you have publically clarified your Definition of vegetarianism, and how that applies to your labeling. I am also extremely cross with your for helping to foster the misconception that vegetarians do eat fish."

Yes bruffin that's true.

DM is a chef and also gets very cross with the amount of people who say they are vegan and then happily order the icecream...

Have asked for that fiat post to be removed. Will teach me to preview!

Marking my place so I can complain later. Can anyone clarify if they have already changed the wording of the ad to 'non meat eaters'?

Bruffin beat me to it!

Don't blame Morrisons. Blame the twats who call themselves vegetarians but eat fish.

YANBU I used to work as a waitress at weddings. We once had a wedding where the bride had chosen fish as the vegetarian option as her mother who was a "vegetarian" wanted the fish.

They were adamant that this was correct!!
We just discretely sidled up to all the veggies and said "the bride has ordered fish as the vegetarian main - but we have a proper vegetarian dish if you'd prefer".

Funny enough they all looked horrified and went for the mushroom strogonoff/vegetable lasagne/whatever it was that day.