In June 2015, a Tesco store near Liverpool Street station in London set up a Pringles promotion under a “Ramadan Mubarak” banner. Smokey Bacon Pringles were in the middle of it.
Press reports placed the store about a mile from the East London Mosque in Whitechapel, one of the largest mosques in Europe. A shopper photographed the display and shared it online, and within a day or two it was in the national press.
Years later, I still use it with clients. The mistake itself was small. What it shows about how organisations think was not.
“But there’s no pork in them”.
Let’s deal with this first, because someone always brings it up. According to reports at the time, the crisps contained no pork: the flavour was artificial and they were suitable for vegetarians. The Independent also noted that they were not halal-certified.
Either way, the ingredients list is not the whole story. Many Muslims spend Ramadan fasting from dawn to sunset, praying, giving to charity and paying closer attention to what they eat. Pork is explicitly prohibited in Islam. A product labelled “bacon” is therefore an obvious choice to question before putting it beneath a Ramadan greeting, regardless of its ingredients.
Reactions varied. The shopper who first shared the photo said he was not offended and found it funny. That does not remove the marketing lesson: you cannot rely on every customer seeing the funny side. How something is received matters alongside what it technically contains.
The naivety behind it.
There is no suggestion that anyone at Tesco set out to insult Muslim customers. That is exactly why this case is so useful. Cultural mistakes do not need malicious intent to undermine a message.
Ramadan presents commercial opportunities. Families gather to break the fast at iftar, prepare meals and host guests. Pringles later said the Ramadan promotion was its idea, but that it was intended for other flavours and that the mistake happened in one store. We cannot know the internal decisions from the display alone. What we can see is the result: a welcome to Muslim customers alongside a product prominently labelled “bacon”. As a consultant, that is the gap I would highlight between the intended message and the finished execution.
This is what I see in organisations again and again. They learn the calendar of a culture but not its meaning. They know when Ramadan starts. They do not always understand what it asks of the people who observe it.
The non-apology.
Tesco’s statement deserves as much attention as the display. A Tesco spokesman said: “We are proud to offer a wide range of meals and products to meet the needs of our customers during Ramadan. We recognise these Pringles weren’t in the most suitable place and our store colleagues have now moved them.”
There was no “sorry” in that statement. It acknowledged the placement without explaining why it was inappropriate. To my mind, that made the issue sound like a product on the wrong shelf, rather than a failure to consider the audience.
Pringles, whose promotion it was, did apologise. It said the mistake happened in one London store and that it had taken steps to prevent it happening again. That distinction matters: criticism of Tesco’s wording should not overlook Pringles’ response.
For organisations handling a similar mistake, the lesson is straightforward. Move the product, but also explain the problem, take responsibility and say what will change. Correcting the display and addressing the relationship are different tasks.
Why this matters beyond the UK.
Much of my work is with professionals and organisations operating in the Gulf and the wider Middle East. In my experience, cultural misjudgements can have consequences well beyond an individual campaign. A careless gesture can damage relationships, close doors and undo goodwill. Where business depends heavily on trust and personal relationships, people may remember not only what you got wrong, but how you responded when it was pointed out.
The same lesson applies to expatriates and businesses. Learning customs is a starting point. Real cultural intelligence means understanding the values behind those customs well enough to anticipate how your actions may be read, while recognising that people within any community will respond differently.
For UK professionals working with the Middle East, that means building relationships in which local colleagues and partners feel able to question an idea before it becomes a public mistake. Those conversations matter whether you are in the same office or working together from afar.
Three questions before any culturally focused campaign.
- Who is this for, and have we asked them? If nobody from the community you are addressing has seen the campaign before launch, you are relying on assumptions.
- What does this signal, apart from what it says? Words, images, products and timing all communicate something. Check every element, not just the headline.
- If this goes wrong, would we understand why? If you cannot identify potential misunderstandings, you need more local input before launching.
The real cost.
Tesco said its colleagues had moved the crisps. The coverage, though, remains online more than a decade later. The moment passes, but the record of it does not.
Respect is not a seasonal promotion. It is knowing who you are talking to before you start talking.
MERCAG teaches, mentors and advises people and businesses in the UK who work with the Middle East, helping them build cultural intelligence and the personal relationships on which effective business depends. Get in touch to discuss support for your team.