This has all got very silly. I still find it funny that people are forwarding and promoting this story in all kinds of ways. It divides people into several responses.
1) There is no way a child that age could do that.
2) How cute/sweet/adorable.
3) Chris King is a hero who should be knighted/promoted/extolled beyond even twitter and facebook. He seems a top bloke.
4) What a great PR strategy this appears to have been (we wish our company had thought of it).
5) What is a £?
6) How mean that Sainsbury’s should only send a £3 voucher.
7) How kind of Sainsbury’s to send a £3 voucher.
8) What is £3 in dollars/euros/baht?
9) What is Sainsbury’s?
10) Where can I get a Sainsbury’s? Next time I am in the United Kingdom I want to buy one.
11) What is tiger bread?
12) If there are no giraffes in it, we cannot call it giraffe bread, under EU trading directive.
The Huffington Post (UK) believe Sainsbury’s ought to rename it Giraffe Bread. My father believes they should sponsor a Giraffe in a wildlife sanctuary or zoo, preferably called Lily. Wikipedia briefly mentioned the story (under Tiger Bread), but the story apparently needs verifying. A number of other blogs around the world have written up the story now, mostly in the heart-warming category, but an Italian Magazine has capitalised on the marketing side too. The Sun now has a page on the internet also telling the story: Little Lily probes Sainsburys about tiger bread and I was obliged to spend 30p checking whether she was in print today (no, just online). Facebook has a page dedicated to hero-worshipping Chris King, gaining huge popularity today. From this I have learnt today that Chris, like Lily, is about to start nursery school, on placement as a trainee teacher. He will make a great teacher in my opinion if he is a natural at getting on to the children’s level. Perhaps the most bizarre twist is the analysis done by Laurence Borel which tries to trace how the story went viral.
My friend from university who originally posted the pictures to Twitter makes some insightful comments at the end of that analysis. Facebook couldn’t forward photos in quite the same way as Twitter back in June.
There is a serious side to all this humour too. We love our daughter and do not want to exploit her or cause her distress. She finds the story funny at the moment, but hasn’t got much time for it. Without protecting her, she could end up in a situation like this:
… which won’t be happening on my watch. £3 is quite enough really to make a whole lot of people smile.
When our son gets a little older though, perhaps he ought to send a letter to Ferrari…
jam and giraffes 
When you made the original blog post, you probably never would have thought that it would receive such attention. And it really didn’t until now.
Speaking purely from a business and marketing perspective, the response from Sainsbury’s outlines a perfect example of how customer service should be, and the power that social media has in promoting a brand.
As a parent, one has to realize that if you’re a blogger, someone out there may make one of your posts go viral, no matter how well intended or innocent the post was. We must be careful of what we expose the subjects of our posts to, especially if the subjects are kids.
Cheers from Canada,
I really thought I agreed with Lily on the Giraffe vs. Tiger controversy. But after I saw this video of tiger cubs, I am not so sure! Turns out Tiger Cubs have that pattern in their fur…
Perhaps it’s more aptly called *Tiger Cub* Bread! If nothing else, Lily will enjoy the sweet tiger cub video. 😀
Many blessings,
Nancy
sounds like you have your head screwed on about the whole thing. its a great story… and i’m sure your daughter will find it funny when she’s older.
She’ll probably dine out on that story for many years.
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Looks like they are genuinely thinking of changing the name and it’s all thanks to Lily! GO LILY!
http://j-sainsbury.co.uk/giraffebread
Apparently Chris King even got proposed to by a girlie from Sky Living because of the way he responded to Lily’s letter – I think I need to go to the same Customer Service school that Chris went to!
“… which won’t be happening on my watch. £3 is quite enough really to make a whole lot of people smile”.
Hats off to you, Ms. Robinson
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