In the hype of the United Kingdom’s food crisis, the grocery chain of Tesco, ran advertisements implying that companies involved in processing and distributing of meat products in the UK, were subject to claims of having sold their products containing horse meat.
“What Burgers Have Taught Us”**, the advert created by Tesco, stated, “The problem we’ve had with some of our meat lately is about more than burgers and bolognese. It’s about some of the ways we get meat to your dinner table. It’s about the whole food industry.”
**https://www.ourtesco.com/2013/02/27/our-commitments-to-customers/
Outrage ensued as small and local business out spoke to the media, articulating that the ad was a misrepresentation of many of their own meat products, unrelated to Tesco.
Tesco’s ad was an attempt to coverup their horse meat scandal in January of 2013, when small test were run on their meat and traces of horse were found in burgers distributed and sold throughout their stores.
A spokeswoman from Tesco, announced their disapproval of the ruling by the Advertising Standards Authorities (ASA), as they believed that the wording was taken in a literal sense. The ASA retorted, claiming that Tesco’s ad was a “definitive statement” against the whole food industry.
Health and food regulations play a distinctive role, with regards to business ethics. Tesco directly lied to its customers, and indirectly defaced the names of other competitive meat distributors in the United Kingdom.
~www.theguardian.com/business/2013/sep/04/tesco-horsemeat-scandal-food-industry