In the same week actress Romola Garai threw her weight behind a campaign to stop Tesco selling lads’ mags, Sainsbury’s has come under fire for offering free copies of The Sun in its in-store cafés.
The retailer’s Facebook page has been flooded with comments from campaigning group Child Eyes, which is calling for Sainsbury’s to remove the newspaper from its cafés because the page three model could be seen by children.
The group, formed in 2012, campaigns to stop “sexualised images being displayed at child height in shops and public spaces”.
One campaigner posted: “Please don’t supply free porn in your café Sainsbury’s, through the Sun newspaper. I can’t take my children in there anymore after someone opened up page three in front of us.”
However, others defended Sainsbury’s. “The Sun newspaper is sold everywhere not just Sainsbury’s,” posted one. “If you don’t want your children to see it don’t look at the newspaper and if other people are looking at the newspaper move away!”
A Sainsbury’s spokesman told The Grocer: “We believe it’s best to let our customers make an informed decision about what they want to read. The newspapers available in our restaurants have been selected based on what customers ask us for.”
Garai is backing the Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign, which recently persuaded The Co-operative Group to take action and is now calling on Tesco to stop selling Zoo and Nuts magazines in its stores.
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