Courtesy of Sainsbury's
The bread pictured is sold by UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's. It was recently renamed from "Tiger Bread" to "Giraffe Bread," thanks to a young girl's letter ? and some help from the Internet.
By Rosa Golijan
UK-based supermarket chain Sainsbury's?sold something called "Tiger Bread" until Jan. 31. But on that day the bakery product was renamed to "Giraffe Bread," thanks to a 3 1/2-year-old girl's astute observation, a couple of letters and some help from the Internet. Here's how all of those things came together.
In May 2011,?3 1/2-year-old Lily Robinson wrote a letter to?Sainsbury's about one of its products, Tiger Bread:
Dear
Sainsssssssssssssssssssbbbbbbbbbbbburyyys,?Why is tiger bread c\alled tiger bread? It should be c\alled giraffe bread.
Love from Lily Robinson age 3 1/2
Chris King, a member of the?Sainsbury's?customer service team, happened to spot Robinson's note and sent her a reply.?"I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea ??it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn't it," he agreed in a letter, which included a gift card redeemable at any of the supermarket chain's locations.
Courtesy of Sainsbury's
The letter sent by three-and-a-half-year-old Lily Robinson (left) and the reply she received from Chris King, who was a member of Sainsbury's customer service team (right).
Robinson's mom posted that charming reply along with the child's original note on her website?on June 15, 2011, where it got a little bit of attention before being swallowed into the Internet's void.
But then something strange happened in January 2012. The photos of the letters exchanged by Robinson and King were suddenly all over Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.?There's no solid explanation as to why this happened, but Laurence Borel of Blog Till You Drop speculates?that renewed interest began with a post by a Facebook "power user" and spread virally from there. (One Facebook post in particular wound up with more than 150,000 likes and nearly 50,000 shares.)
Eventually publications such as the Huffington post, the Sun, and others got wind of the delightful letter exchange. The stories these outlets published drew even more attention to things until?Sainsbury's finally decided that it was time to revisit Robinson's idea.
"In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our Tiger Bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread and seeing how that goes," proclaimed the company's blog on Jan. 31. "We think that renaming Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread is a great idea and want to thank Lily for helping us see the spots for what they are."
In response to this announcement, Robinson's mom wrote another new blog post, explaining that her family is?"grateful for the massive interest in Lily?s Giraffe Bread letter as a result of the new viral impact this week and Sainsbury?s launch of Giraffe Bread." She encouraged those who were touched by the story to donate to one of several charities.
In the meantime, Chris King?? the man who noticed Robinson's letter in the first place?? has left?Sainsbury's and gone off to university. He's studying to become a teacher, a?Sainsbury's representative tells me. "He's?obviously picked the right career."
Though one must wonder what his future students will think when they discover that their teacher has a Facebook fan page?dedicated to his now legendary time with Sainsbury's.?
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Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.
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