To think Paperchase shouldn't have apologised?

[jenniferl1983]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42057493

Paperchase have apologised for a promotional giveaway that was featured in the Daily Mail. They were lobbied by the campaign group Stop Funding Hate and have now promised they ''won't ever do it again''.

AIBU to think they shouldn't have backed down so easily on the back of some social media messages? Businesses seem now to be so scared of causing a media furore that they now apologise for anything (see the 1 gender fluid man who got Topshop to change their dressing room policy).

This isn't an incident where someone has received appalling or dangerous service or been discriminated against, it's just a promotion in a newspaper. I don't understand the ott grovelling.

Great post catfromjapan

I think it's great - I've hated having to book ads in certain publications in the past just because it's seen as where you have to advertise regardless of how 'moral' the company I worked for was.

It won't stop companies advertising in the Mail/Mail Online just because they're an obvious way to hit the numbers, but if more companies do this (and not just with the Mail) then hopefully it will a - prompt people to think a bit more about the media they choose to consume and b - make advertisers/agencies be a bit more creative about the way they target a mass audience so that publications like the Mail lose a bit of their power.

I loathe the DM but the limits if any of freedom of the press in Britain are our business and not the business of the U.N. or any of its organs.

I know this is completely irrelevant but Topshop didn’t change their policy because of that one person - they already had a mixed dressing room policy and didn’t abide by it. Not saying whether their policy is right or wrong, that’s just what happened!

SFH has been encouraging people to contact all sorts of companies who advertise on the mail to ask them to rethink who they align themselves with. Most of these companies haven't stopped advertising in the Mail. This is a really really small win!

Katypp I’m one of the SFH supporters you talk about and entirely understand how I can disagree with something and that doesn’t make it wrong and I’m perfectly happy with free speech which is why I don’t have a problem with the Telegraph for example which is the opposite end of the spectrum from my political views, but free speech is not the same as spreading hatred. Ppl are quick to state that the Mail are not doing anything illegal but nor were the judges who were branded enemies of the people on the front page of the Mail, they were just doing their jobs. That is bullying of the highest order, my tweeting a company I like to shop in with the words ‘please stop funding hate’ (as I did) is hardly the same thing. And for those saying they were ‘forced to apologise’, no they weren’t, they chose to. Other companies have had similar social media messages sent to them and chosen to ignore them, there’s no ‘forcing’, simply customers letting them know that they don’t appreciate their choice. What they do with that information is up to them. My freedom of speech is surely acceptable too?

I really cannot believe that people actually think it's an attack on free speech either! Seriously?! Are people who disagree with the mail not also afforded the same rights?? Free speech is for everyone.

I think the important distinction to make is between freedom of speech and freedom from censure. The Mail can publish whatever hateful nonsense it wants - no-one is standing at the editorial office door with a gun to the editor's head - but the public have a right to censure the modern equivalent of HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS via pressure on the income stream of the paper through advertising. This has always, always been the dynamic of a free press.

How anyone can work for such a shitrag I do not know.

I think it is appalling they have apologised. The DM is full of terrible journalism, I don't think it is any more "hatey" than the Daily Mirror or Express, I don't think it is any more biased than the Mirror or the new incarnation of The Independent. It's online journalists are obviously the dregs of the industry, its obsession with showbiz and women's bodies is so perverse it is boarding on lunacy (but they only do it because so many women click on these articles), but it also has some decent writers who highlight interesting points and allow discussion where it would be shut down elsewhere.

Paperchase were just using the DM as a distribution mechanism for its brand, and handing out wrapping paper. It's crazy for them to apologise.

If you don't like the DM, don't buy it. Criticise it. Boycott it even to destroy it. But how dare anybody try to damage a different business that partners with a perfectly legal concern, for merely handing out wrapping paper.

As for Paperchase's reaction, I am disgusted.
"We now know we were wrong to do this - we're truly sorry and we won't ever do it again. Thanks for telling us what you really think

No. Getting the tiny subset of people who are on twitter, and within that the even more miniscule subset of people who were aware of this in the first place, to respond to your little, unpublicised survey, does not mean you know what the public - or your customers - think. How ridiculous. Whoever in Paperchase came up with this needs sacking.

and would support a boycott of Paperchase now.

"Stop Funding Hate need to look at bigger issues that are going on and not focus on something so relatively small. "

When Facism and hatred is on the rise, 'small things' get overlooked and slowly get bigger. We need organisations that keep an eye on these things.

MissionItsImpossible did the Sun's response to the lies they wrote about Hillsbourgh pass you by?

The Media has always been used to spread Propoganda/Hatred and bigotry. But now we understand how that then shapes the views of sections of Society, we all need to react to outright lies.

Opinions have been mentioned throughout this thread, which suggests that posters are confused by the difference in Opinion and Lies.

It was to every country shame that when the 'small things', the Cartoons about 'Jewish greed', the outright lies that were told etc, started, that they weren't shut down and actions not taken against those spreading the lies. At the very least those promoting hate should find themselves a lone voice when everyone has distanced themselves from them.

Paperchase wrapping paper is shit anyway. Each roll only does about one present!

whiskyowl "I think the important distinction to make is between freedom of speech and freedom from censure. "

This was so succinct, so correct, and such a very, very good, educative point, I felt I had to re-post it.

thecatfromjapan your post re bullying was exactly what I was thinking but couldn’t articulate like you did!

and would support a boycott of Paperchase now.

And you would be absolutely within your rights to do. In fact go for it if you feel strongly. Set up a campaign group to write to Paperchase and tell them that unless they start advertising in the mail again you will no longer be shopping there. Nobody can force you to shop somewhere you do not wish to and you are within your rights to give your feedback on policy to any company you choose.

Of course I rather suspect that Paperchase's natural demographic is more on the guardian reading side of the spectrum, so how worried they would be about this I can't say. I look forward to seeing how it works out for you though.

Of course I rather suspect that Paperchase's natural demographic is more on the guardian reading side of the spectrum, so how worried they would be about this I can't say.

Of course. I doubt Paperchase issued its apology without a comprehensive data parsing exercise.

Paperchase is now my number one shop to visit for Christmas - their products now seem all the more lovely.

Paperchase dropped a HUGE bollock here by not recognising that their key demographic would not, on the whole, want to be associated with misogynist, racist hate mongers.

I haven’t shopped there in ages, but their apology was so spot on, I am feeling warmly towards them.

Just been in to make a completely unnecessary purchase and joined the loyalty programme! Lovely unicorn stuff. I’m voting with my pocket as everyone is entitled to do

I do wonder despite the loss of revenue from paperchase if this may have been beneficial to the Mail. Now they can claim victim and go hay look at that gang of online extremist trolls trying to since the us and thus you as reader (to its readers)?

Could this almost be a home goal by left activists?

FFS it's not bullying or censorship. People have simply exerted their democratic right to tell a company how they feel about their links to a newspaper. The company has responded accordingly. No one is closing down the Daily Mail, no one is bullying anyone. For a newspaper and readership that seems to thrive on calling other people "snowflakes* they are being awfully wimpy about the whole affair.

Surely Paperchase, also subject to free speech, are allowed to decide where they want to advetise? Stop funding hate may well have been instrumental in them making that decision but ultimately they have no legal powers to make them pull advertising.

Personally I am thrilled about it and do not understand the 'slippery slope' argument put forward by many on this thread. Organisations will always decide what is best for them, usually whatever makes them most money.

Birdsgottafly Please tell us who you think should “take down” newspapers which publish material which you consider harmful or hateful?

Please: not the government in any shape or form. That would be the immediate end of any press freedom.

‘Data parsing exercise’?

More like some dumbo at Paperchase P.R got an email from the group threatening to bomb social media if they continued to advertin the D.M and the dumbo got paranoid about negative P.R, mindful of the tumbling profits in the last financial year.

So all the none readers of the mail are going to shop at paper chase and you all think that the mail is going to be quaking in their boots, the mail rightly or wrongly has the biggest readership by far in this country.

I think it is ridiculous that they apologised. I think it sets a dangerous precedent when certain groups dictate what thoughts and opinions are acceptable and what aren't. I don't particularly like the Daily Mail but then I don't particularly like the Independent either and both papers have very very dubious objectivity standards yet nobody calls for the Independent to be boycotted etc. I find a lot of the stuff I read in the Independent hateful and shocking yet because it is a left-wing newspaper it will never be censured.