M&S rouge-faced as it promotes garden range with an Aldi white
MARKS & Spencer has accidentally used a bottle of wine from Aldi in a photograph advertising garden furniture.
The budget supermarket, which has been sued twice by M&S in recent years over copycat products, appeared to get its own back on its rival in a post on X, formerly Twitter, yesterday.
It posted a screenshot taken from the M&S website of its £669 Roma Fourseater Garden Table and Chairs, with a caption joking: “Marks and Spencer drink Aldi wine. Pass it on.”
In an apparent marketing faux pas, the photo showing the garden furniture on a patio appears to include a bottle of Specially Selected Côtes De Provence Blanc, which can be found on the Aldi website. It is currently out of stock. Its Côtes De Provence Rosé also sold out after the social media post, which has been viewed almost 550,000 times.
There has long been rivalry between the two supermarkets, with M&S taking legal action against Aldi in 2021 over its lookalike version of the Colin the Caterpillar cake.
The companies reached an out-of-court agreement in November 2022 after Aldi altered the appearance of its Cuthbert the Caterpillar cake.
However, Aldi lost a year-long court battle with M&S over its “copycat” festive gin bottles.
The High Court ruled in February last year that Aldi had infringed M&S’S copyright with its “Infusionist” gin bottles, which, like the M&S version, contained gold flakes and could be lit up with an LED light.
Aldi has gained a reputation for designing products that look very similar to mainstream brands, often to the annoyance of the companies behind the products it imitates. Meanwhile, data in February by NIQ showe M&S’S sales are growing faster than Aldi, making it the UK’S second fastest growing supermarket behind Lidl. An M&S spokesman said: “Sometimes you regret asking guests to BYOB – this one is fine for a prop but if you’d prefer to enjoy a top-quality bottle of award-winning rosé with your new garden furniture, we’d recommend our gorgeously fruity and aromatic Collection Côtes de Provence Sainte-victoire rosé – an absolute must for lovers of pink drinks in the sunshine.”