Tasteless publicity stunt backfires

Last week, the national newspapers became very excited about a wine taster working for a supermarket chain who had her sense of taste insured for £10m.

But, it seems, the whole stunt was perilously close to failing. The supermarket's press office was very keen to release the story quickly after chef Antony Worrall Thompson managed to gain many column inches dedicated to the insurance of his fingers and it knew editors would be looking for another story to top that

However, no one told the broker until the journalists had been notified. Backchat hears that panic set in when the PRs were told that the risk had not been placed.

A team was assembled to put the risk on cover and managed to do so with hours to spare.