Every little helps: A great bit of PR

The Tesco press office seems to be pretty good. They've done a couple of things lately which have set them apart a bit, and made me laugh.

This week - a news story about the bloke who apprently founded the Jedi religion. He got annoyed when he was in Tesco and was asked to take down his hood, or to leave the store. He says he has to wear his Jedi-hood as part of his religion, and accused the store of victimisation and discrimination.

According to newpaper reports, he's even seeking legal advice on the matter. Most big PR machines would probably either not comment, or send a very minimal response, just to make sure they don't get involved in any debate, or accidentally tread on some religious grounds, or do actually end up being taken to court. But in a victory for corporate PR and common sense, Tesco sent the following, fantastic response:

"Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.

If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they'll miss lots of special offers."

This Jedi certainly doesn't have his hood up right now

Another time I noticed a sense of humour from the supermarket giant was in a press release a while ago. They started stocking a new range of extra-large condoms. In the press release to announce this was a comment from some important boss, which said something along the lines of: "We believe the new product range ties in nicely with our slogan - that 'every little helps'".