Pluck sake: supermarket falls foul of typo in turkey ad

Retailer issues apology and denies stunt

Poor old Supervalu appears to have fallen fowl of predictive text this morning when it sent out a promotional text message to thousands of its customers calling into question the parentage of its turkeys.

"Special! Amazing Turkey Offer," the message started innocently enough. "Frozen Bastard Turkey 4-5kg was €18.99 NOW ONLY €7.99," it added somewhat surprisingly.

Within an hour, the supermarket was made aware of its error by confused customers and in an effort to contain the crisis it immediately sent out a note of contrition in which it explained that what it was actually selling were basted turkeys.

The clarification came just that little bit too late to stop the story spreading its wings on social media however where Supervalu and its bastard turkeys came in for a proper roasting.

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While the unfortunate typo might have knocked the stuffing out of the supermarket , it was able to take some comfort from the fact that the special offer had travelled a whole lot further than it might otherwise have done.

A spokesman denied that the typo was part of a subtly orchestrated viral marketing campaign, however, and he suggested that The Irish Times - which, incidentally, has never made any kind of spelling mistake or allowed any class of typo appear in print, ever - was talking gobbledegook.

Conor Pope

Conor Pope

Conor Pope is Consumer Affairs Correspondent, Pricewatch Editor