Morrisons shopper horrified after finding ’emotional blackmail’ anti-meat sticker ‘from Chloe the cow’ on her spaghetti Bolognese’
Leah Mallett, 18, said she found the campaign sticker stuck on the cellophane inside
A HORRIFIED Morrisons shopper claims she felt "emotionally blackmailed" after finding an anti-meat sticker "from Chloe the cow" on her spaghetti Bolognese.
Leah Mallett, 18, said she removed the cardboard sleeve of her Italian ready meal only to discover the campaign sticker stuck onto the cellophane.
The note depicted a distressed-looking cow and brandished the words: "My name was Chloe. I wanted to live! Your 'personal choice' killed me. DON'T BUY IT!"
The beauty therapist slammed the sticker, which she says she found on her lunch on Friday, as an "aggressive guerrilla tactic" that was similar to emotional blackmail.
Meat-eater Leah, from Leeds, West Yorks, said: "I felt really horrible. Someone had put it there to make them feel like that.
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"I've seen and understand people's opinions on eating meat. But doing something aggressive like that is almost like [emotional] blackmailing.
"It made me feel quite sick. I didn't really feel like I wanted to eat that meal after that.
"I didn't know what it was at first when I opened it, it didn't look part of the ready meal at all.
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"Then I realised it was a sticker and just saw this picture of a cow.
"I was really shocked. I called for [my boss] Charlotte to come and have a look."
Charlotte Eldon, 32, who has worked with Leah for two-and-a-half years, claims she was equally taken aback by the image of a sad-eyed cow seemingly accusing them of killing it.
She said: "I didn't know what it was at first. When I picked it up and realised it was a cow I threw it back down.
"It did shock me. I was scared, almost."
Charlotte, from Horsforth, West Yorks, added: "I think personally for me it was the picture of the cow and how they had written their message.
"It was very shocking, but also a very aggressive way to get their message across."
The meal was allegedly picked up by Leah's family at the Morrisons Horsforth store earlier in the week before Leah opened it up for her Friday lunch at work.
She said: "My dad bought the meals, we usually have them in the freezer. We always shop at Morrisons as it's always known to be good.
"We've still got a couple more in the freezer at home but I haven't checked them yet to see if they had the stickers too.
"We contacted Morrisons and they said they were sorry. We do wonder if anything was resolved – whether they found out if it was a member of staff that had put it there, or if it was a customer.
"You'd think they could have been caught on CCTV in the shop doing it."
However, the controversial message has apparently been unsuccessful in converting Leah and Charlotte to a meat-free diet.
Leah said: "I did put me off eating that meal, but it hasn't stopped me eating meat.
"You'd think they might have gone for some of the more obvious meat products like bacon."
A Morrisons spokesperson said: "Somebody has put a sticker for their campaign on the outside of a product in one of our stores.
"It doesn't appear to be a wider issue than that."
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