Jacob Rees-Mogg, the tweedy Conservative candidate for the new parliamentary seat of North-East Somerset, has been caught red-handed trying to rip off the Sun newspaper in his latest campaign leaflet.
Rees-Mogg – who, as the son of the former Times editor Lord Rees-Mogg, should perhaps know better – admitted that a flier posted through residents’ doors in the constituency contained text lifted directly from an article by the Sun’s political guru Trevor Kavanagh. “Though the piece expresses my views, I did not specifically write it, although I agree with the points made,” says the Moggster, pictured left.
“While the points are valid, plagiarism is a bad thing and I will drop a note to Mr Kavanagh apologising. We won’t ask the person who did write this to write for us again. It’s an embarrassing matter for which I apologise.”
To his credit, Kavanagh is taking what amounts to intellectual theft with a pinch of salt. “Jacob was good enough to call and apologise” he told me. “I told him I was flattered and not at all offended.” Link

Via Greenslade.

In the October 28 issue in the Meadow Lake Golf Club ad it read Skyladdies in stock. It should have read “Skycaddies now in stock”. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.

THE maker of
blackcurrant drink Ribena has launched an advertising campaign
apologising for misleading customers over the product’s Vitamin C
content.
The television and print ads will
feature the Australian managing director of GlaxoSmithKline, John
Sayers, saying sorry for what he labels an ”unreliable” testing
method.
The campaign aims to turn around
flagging sales and rebuild consumer trust after a New Zealand court
found GlaxoSmithKline guilty of 15 breaches of the Fair Trading Act.
The
company was fined $NZ227,500 ($202,000) and forced to admit there were
no noticeable quantities of Vitamin C in its ready-to-drink Ribena,
contrary to information on the cartons. It also admitted claims that
blackcurrants contained four times the amount of Vitamin C of oranges
might mislead people about the content of its undiluted Ribena product.
In the ads, Mr Sayers said the company was not aware of the mistake.
”The
testing method we used to determine the level of Vitamin C … was
unreliable but we were unaware of that at the time,” Mr Sayers said.
”From the moment we’ve known there was a problem, we’ve been working
hard to fix it.”
…
 

The minister of a Baptist church in South Portland asked for
forgiveness Monday for frightening members of the Jewish community with
a provocative newspaper advertisement that promoted his Sunday sermon
about anti-Semitism.

The ad for the First Baptist Church appeared on the Religion &
Values page of the Portland Press Herald on Saturday, touting a sermon
titled, "The Only Way to Destroy the Jewish Race."

The sermon was supportive of Jews but the words in the ad
generated fear and anger, as well as complaints to the church and the
newspaper.

"Dear friends, please forgive me for causing alarm in your
hearts," the Rev. Philip Andrukaitis wrote in a statement released
Monday afternoon. "No doubt, several folks have already jumped to
conclusions about me and this church."

Andrukaitis’ sermon, the text of which he gave to Jewish leaders
and the news media, called for Christians to support Jews and the
nation of Israel. He said the sermon title was intended to spark
discussion and referred to his message that God will never allow the
destruction of his chosen people. "I never expected it," Andrukaitis
said of the uproar caused by the ad.

The newspaper also apologized on Monday, for publishing the ad
containing the sermon title. The newspaper’s guidelines "prohibit
advertising copy that might appear offensive in nature," and the
publication was the result of a mistake, according to a written
statement released by Rob Blethen, director of advertising.

"The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram apologizes to all
who might have been offended by this unintentional oversight.
Additional safeguards have been put in place to avoid a similar
situation in the future," the statement said…

Editor’s Note: There was an error in the "Insider View" section of this
week’s Buzz which was circulated earlier today. This version has been
corrected and we apologize for sending out the Buzz twice today.

LIMA (Reuters) – Royal Nepal Airlines has apologized to Peru after
mistakenly using a photo of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu to promote
tourism in Nepal.
Peru’s foreign ministry said in a statement
Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way
around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru’s
tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan "Have you seen
Nepal?"
Peruvian mountaineer Ernesto Malaga, who was visiting
India last month, noticed the blunder on a poster hanging on a wall in
the airline’s office in New Delhi. Peruvian authorities requested
explanations from the airline via the embassy.
"The airline …
offered apologies to Peru for using the picture of the Machu Picchu
Sanctuary on a poster to promote their country and assured that the
lamentable error has been corrected," the statement said.
"As a consequence, the Nepalese airline fired an employee in the
rank of a manager … It is concluded that it was an isolated error,"
it added…Link

From: EuroGroups
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 12:24 PM
To: [deleted]
Subject: An Apology for Erroneous Ad: France Wine Tour

An Apology for Erroneous Ad

To all our readers,
With all sense of responsibility, the staff, management and editors of eTurboNews apologizes for the error in yesterday’s Rail Europe ad featuring France Wine Tour.

We are sorry that the subject for the eTurboNews Travel-Telegram broadcast read “France Whine Tour” instead of “France Wine Tour” as it should have been. 

Below is a corrected version of the ad…

AMARILLO, Texas – Caitlin Campbell couldn’t spell collyrium but someone
couldn’t spell her last name. A billboard went up in this Panhandle
city to honor Caitlin’s eighth-place finish in the national spelling
bee. It reads: "Congratulations! Caitlin Cambell for making Amarillo
proud."
Lamar Outdoor Advertising, which donated the space, said it plans to replace the downtown sign with the correct spelling.
Caitlin, 14, made it to the ninth round of the first prime-time
network broadcast of the Scripps National Spelling Bee earlier this
month in Washington. She left the competition when she misspelled the
word collyrium, a term for eye lotion. Link

More spelling bee errors here.

RETRACTION
by Sunpab Health Products Pty Ltd (Sunsnatural) and The Sunday Telegraph
An advertisement for Heart+ Mega Potency in the 3 April issue of The Sunday Telegraph should NOT have been published.
The advertisement had not been approved before publication, as required by the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 in the interests of consumer protection, public health and safety, and it contained a large number of breaches of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code.
The advertisement was found to be MISLEADING, likely to arouse unwarranted and unrealistic expectations of product effectiveness and used language which could bring about fear or distress.
The many other breaches found in the interim and final determinations of the Complaints Resolution Panel can be viewed on the website addresses http://www.tgacc.com.au/complaintSingle.cfm?id=519 and http://www.tgacc.com.au/complaintSingle.cfm?id=527
All advertisements for therapeutic goods that are directed to consumers MUST comply with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code. A complaint form can be downloaded from the website www.tgacc.com.au/complaints .
The Complaints Resolution Panel is established in the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990 to receive, consider and determine complaints about therapeutic goods advertisements, including those that are published in newspapers or magazines, or broadcast on TV, radio or the internet.

The maker of Listerine mouthwash will spend $2 million to replace what
a judge called misleading advertising suggesting the product is as
effective as flossing at fighting plaque and gingivitis.
About 4,000 workers will be deployed around the country to place
stickers over the claim on Listerine bottles and to remove similar
advertisements that hang on bottlenecks, a lawyer for Pfizer told a
federal judge Monday. Television, print and medical-journal ads using the campaign are also
being pulled, and the as-effective-as-floss campaign has also been
removed from the Listerine Web site, lawyer Tom Smart said.