Tesco removes Mel B advert after Spice Girl's Instagram complaint
12 November 2019, 09:48
Tesco has removed an advert featuring Mel B after the Spice Girl made a public complaint via social media and demanded to speak to the supermarket's CEO.
The popstar, also known as Scary Spice, took to Instagram to complain about Tescos use of an image of her in its advert for the new Clubcard Plus.
Tesco's advert read: "Stop right now. You get 10% off two big shops a month for £7.99."
The message was a play on words from the Spice Girls' hit single Stop, which contains the lyrics: "Stop right now."
Mel B posted an image of the bus stop advert on Instagram and wrote: "Can the CEO OF TESCO DAVE LEWIS PLEASE CONTACT ME URGENTLY. Thank you."
Her post has received over 44,000 likes.
The photo of Mel B included in the Tesco advert was taken at the Brit Awards in 1997 and showed the singer in a leopard-print catsuit.
Following her social media complaint, Tesco has now removed the advert.
A spokesman for the supermarket chain said: "Here at Tesco we are really big fans of Mel B and were excited to feature her photo in our campaign.
"We had authorisation to use this image, but we're sorry Mel B is unhappy so we've stopped using it."
The advert was part of Tesco's latest campaign that features cultural references from the past 100 years for its 100th anniversary, with the tagline: "Prices that take you back".
