Idiotic 'from Mum' texting campaign from Parklife festival lands them with £70k fine

[editor]

Jeez. How crass was this?

The company behind Manchester's Parklife festival has been fined £70,000 after sending promotional text messages claiming to be from festival-goers' mums.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said many of the people who complained suffered "substantial distress".
One teenager, who received the message three years after the death of her mother, said she burst into tears.

Parklife did not initially take the complaint hugely seriously, tweeting: "So this is what it feels like to be a jar of Marmite #LoveItOrHateIt."

Nineteen-year-old Ros Prior wrote them this moving and powerful compaint:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/30335528

 

[jakethesnake]

They should have bunged a bit extra on the fine for the use of "your" when they meant "you're".

 

[trabuquera]

^yeah this. And they did it TWICE .

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Good on the ICO. Serves the unthinking bastards right.

 

[nastybobby]

Reminds me of the time, years ago when we were teenagers, when me and a mate were locked up in the police cells in West Brom for a 'football related incident'. A copper thought he'd try to scare him by saying: 'You're in for it when you get home, just had your dad on the phone and he's fuming!'. To which my mate replied: 'Really? You must have a fucking good phone, he's been dead for 5 years'.

 

[savoloysam]

If anybody here is in advertising or marketing. Kill yourselves.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Reminds me of the time, years ago when we were teenagers, when me and a mate were locked up in the police cells in West Brom for a 'football related incident'. A copper thought he'd try to scare him by saying: 'You're in for it when you get home, just had your dad on the phone and he's fuming!'. To which my mate replied: 'Really? You must have a fucking good phone, he's been dead for 5 years'.

It's always a big risk playing games like this - as the park life fuckwits did - as there is no way of knowing whose parents are dead, and how those people may react.

I wonder if the idiots behind the stunt that got the fine assumed that as their target audience is young, most of them wouldn't have experienced the death of a parent? I wouldn't credit them with that much intelligence to be honest, as any normal human being would realise that you're going to upset at least a few people given that tens of thousands of people die young every year. It was probably dreamt up by some PA idiots that share a brain cell.

 

[Lord Camomile]

The mother doesn't even need to be dead, there are lots of ways people may have difficult or complicated relationships with "Mum".

Though I agree that the most heinous thing about this is the your/you're debacle. Fucking scandalous.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The mother doesn't even need to be dead, there are lots of ways people may have difficult or complicated relationships with "Mum".

Though I agree that the most heinous thing about this is the your/you're debacle. Fucking scandalous.

Sadly, I don't think the ICO have the legal powers to fine organisations for spelling mistakes.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Sadly, I don't think the ICO have the legal powers to fine organisations for spelling mistakes.

there ought to be a body that can.

and for using apostrophes for plurals. although greengrocers might get a discount for bulk

 

[SaskiaJayne]

I recall as a kid in the 60s at school we would often have to write things like what does your Dad do for a living & other Mum & Dad related stuff. In the end I took to shouting out in class "I ain't seen me Dad since I was 2". (ie absent, not dead). I just used to laugh it off in the end but yes, it should not be assumed that everybody has both or any parents, whether dead or just absent.

 

[billy_bob]

I recall as a kid in the 60s at school we would often have to write things like what does your Dad do for a living & other Mum & Dad related stuff. In the end I took to shouting out in class "I ain't seen me Dad since I was 2". (ie absent, not dead). I just used to laugh it off in the end but yes, it should not be assumed that everybody has both or any parents, whether dead or just absent.

My friend's dad committed suicide (on Christmas Eve) when he was eight. I saw him understandably completely flip out and try to bray more than one teacher in such circumstances.

 

[Ralphie]

If anybody here is in advertising or marketing. Kill yourselves.

No YOU should kill yourself instead

 

[Ralphie]

It's always a big risk playing games like this - as the park life fuckwits did - as there is no way of knowing whose parents are dead, and how those people may react.

I wonder if the idiots behind the stunt that got the fine assumed that as their target audience is young, most of them wouldn't have experienced the death of a parent? I wouldn't credit them with that much intelligence to be honest, as any normal human being would realise that you're going to upset at least a few people given that tens of thousands of people die young every year. It was probably dreamt up by some PA idiots that share a brain cell.

Honestly YOU are the bona fide moron and idiot. You clearly have no intelligent and you cannot say anything logical. You're just retarded. You are dismissed.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I think the Parklife organiser finally got here.

 

[mx wcfc]

At school my best mate's dad committed suicide. The two of us went on one of those outdoor activity holidays together one summer. One night in the communal tent, a "what does your dad do?" conversation got started. I felt pretty self conscious about it, but managed to change the conversation when it got to me, and before it was Dave's turn. I could see him welling up. Must be awful to lose a parent young.

 

[StoneRoad]

No YOU should kill yourself instead

oh, Foxtrot Oscar

 

[Yossarian]

I think the Parklife organiser finally got here.

Ralphie, 5 years later: "No, YOU'RE the Parklife organiser."

 

[Ax^]

No YOU should kill yourself instead

is someone under 30 or just never heard bill hicks




Plus if you do work in marketing kill yourself


*Shakes fist at sky*

 

[Celyn]

No YOU should kill yourself instead

You're a bit slow, Ralphie.

 

[Gaia]

View attachment 184409

Do I spy with my little eye someone whose original username began with 'N'…?

 

[editor]

Ralphie has been sent back to bed.

 

[dessiato]

I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. I genuinely don't understand the way people are saying people who are in marketing should kill themselves. Yes some in marketing are dickheads. Some teachers, some doctors etc are also dickheads. The majority are not.

Please grow up and stop doing it.

 

[bellaozzydog]

I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. I genuinely don't understand the way people are saying people who are in marketing should kill themselves. Yes some in marketing are dickheads. Some teachers, some doctors etc are also dickheads. The majority are not.

Please grow up and stop doing it.

No really, kill yourself

 

[neonwilderness]

No really, kill yourself

The righteous indignation dollar

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Do I spy with my little eye someone whose original username began with 'N'…?

another

 

[Steel Icarus]

Do I spy with my little eye someone whose original username began with 'N'…?

Who do you mean Gaia and how do you know?

 

[tonysingh]

Ralphie has been sent back to bed.

With or without his tea?

 

[StoneRoad]

With or without his tea?

Without, I think !