Wowcher apologised after its Saturday email used the line, “Snap up these deals quicker than a croc can catch a kid!” The company said the wording was unacceptable and said it was urgently reviewing its marketing content after ITV news coverage of the email drew attention to the link with a three-year-old boy’s injury.
The discount voucher website said it was “extremely sorry” and that the wording “should never have been written” and “was never approved for use.” It also said, “We recognise the hurt and distress it has caused, particularly for the young child’s family at this unimaginably difficult time.”
Wowcher and the Saturday email
The email went to customers on Saturday and promoted offers with the crocodile line. Wowcher said, “The responsibility sits with us and we are urgently reviewing how our processes failed.” It added that it was reviewing all scheduled marketing content while it strengthens its creative, approval and signoff safeguards.
The company’s explanation points to a process failure inside its own marketing chain: copy was sent out before approval that Wowcher says should have stopped it. For customers, the immediate practical change is that the company says it is checking future scheduled marketing before it goes out.
Old Hurst zoo incident
The apology followed an incident at Old Hurst zoo in Huntingdonshire on Thursday lunchtime, when a three-year-old was taken to Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge with serious injuries after ending up in an enclosure with Nile and saltwater crocodiles. The child is in a critical but stable condition.
A 30-year-old man from Norfolk has been bailed until 18 September while further inquiries take place. He had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and was later released because detectives believed he was not fit to be interviewed.
CCTV and police inquiries
The Times reported on Sunday that detectives were scrutinising CCTV from the zoo to establish whether they would take further action. That leaves the criminal inquiry moving alongside Wowcher’s own review, with both processes still open and the company now having to show that its safeguards catch material before customers see it.
For the family affected by the zoo incident, the practical issue is not the email itself but whether the company’s promised safeguard review changes how it approves material from here. Wowcher has already said the wording was never meant to go out; the unanswered question is how it cleared the system anyway.
