Judith Collins went for a walkabout in Ponsonby and was met by a Media Party backlash, accusing her of having a rent-a-crowd. While she was doing the walkabout a woke optometrist firm blocked her entrance to the store and gave her two thumbs down, much to the delight of the trailing Media Party hacks. Now they are whinging about the backlash they are receiving for their myopic action:
A Ponsonby retailer has revealed why National leader Judith Collins and her entourage were ordered out of the store – and says staff are now copping an online backlash.
It was the stuff of election campaign nightmares yesterday when Collins – with the media in tow – was told not to enter an Auckland optometrist.
The Ponsonby store, Oscar Wylee, explained today that the refusal was not political but down to the size of the group. And staff did not want to be on TV.
“I don’t want to politicise it in any way,” an Oscar Wylee spokesman told the Herald.
“The whole reason was because there was a big crowd and we didn’t want to be on TV.”
That’s an interesting name for a business, why is it familiar?
Oh that’s right, because the same brand in Australia has just been convicted for misleading or deceptive conduct over their woke virtue signalling and false marketing claims:
National eyewear chain Oscar Wylee has been hit with a $3.5 million penalty over a misleading advertising campaign that claimed the company would donate a pair of frames to “someone in need” for every pair sold.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched Federal Court action against the chain in December last year over marketing claims made between January 2014 and December 2018 about the company’s philanthropic work and charitable affiliations.
The court heard Oscar Wylee had sold 328,010 pairs of glasses in that period and donated 3181 pairs – falling 324,829 frames short of its “buy a pair, give a pair” marketing slogan. It donated no frames between 2015 and 2017.
In 2019, after the ACCC investigation began, the company donated 333,404 frames to charities, foundations, hospitals or prisons, and $80,000 to charitable causes.
In a judgment on Friday, Federal Court Justice Anna Katzmann said the company had made “a deliberate marketing choice”.
“By misrepresenting the facts, Oscar Wylee improperly exploited the good nature of consumers to its advantage by contriving to enhance the value of its brand by falsely associating it with altruistic pursuits,” Justice Katzmann said.
“It was conduct which could not easily be checked or monitored, either by consumers or the regulator.“
The chain’s claimed included: “Buying a pair today? As soon as you do, we’ll donate a pair to someone in need.”
Justice Katzmann said “the true position was that in most instances, the latter pair was not donated within the relevant period”.
The claims were made on Oscar Wylee’s website, Facebook and Instagram pages, in-store merchandise and in emails to consumers.
Oscar Wylee had also claimed to have an ongoing and close affiliation with charitable organisation Rose Charities New Zealand, when it had in fact donated $2000 plus 100 glasses frames in 2014 before ceasing all donations.
Justice Katzmann said Oscar Wylee built its reputation by “appealing to socially-conscious consumers who wanted to support charitable causes through their purchasing behaviour”.
“Its conduct was a betrayal of that promise,” she said.
No wonder they refused Judith Collins, Oscar Wylee’s promises are as authentic as Jacinda Ardern’s with a similar delivery pattern. While Oscar Wylee committed a fraud on its customers and cheated charities, Jacinda Ardern fails to deliver and cheats voters.
Birds of a feather flock together.
A company that lives by social media, dies by social media too. The woke warriors never pause to think that National voters can be customers too. Perhaps they might like to think on that as they sell their rose-tinted glasses to the woke of Ponsonby.
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