Waitrose has attracted a wave of jokes at its expense on Twitter after asking followers on the social network why they shop at the supermarket, using the hashtag #WaitroseReasons.

Amid some serious responses about the quality of the produce were a number of gags about the supermarket’s upper crust image.

The humorous Tweets included “Asda Value Peacock feed isn’t as nice” and “cos Clarrisa’s pony just WILL NOT eat ASDA Value straw”.

Waitrose said it enjoyed reading “most” of the responses. It tweeted: “Thanks for all the genuine and funny tweets. We always like to hear what you think and enjoyed most of them.”

The jokes prompted a debate among PRs and marketing bods asking whether the reaction was a social media success or disaster.