Jesus replaced with a Gregg's sausage roll.

There's a map on the Greggs website.

It would be really interesting to follow the fortunes of Greggs following this.

Our local Greggs sells bread

Be interesting to map those areas to see what the population breakdown is like ... not that I'm volunteering :-)

There is a list online of the stores.

Only 500 calendars - oh the power of the gutter press.

The ad was created by Taylor Herring I believe. A London based agency. They declined to comment when contacted , Greggs issued an apology.

I didn’t realise but there were only 500 calendars , available from 17 stores. I wondered where the stores were?

My guess is that the phones of the ad agency responsible will have been ringing off their hooks with new clients- what’s not to like?

Of course Jalima no fault of the shop floor staff at all ( and they won’t be closing down any time soon.)

I have suddenly remembered that old goons song "I'm walking backwards for Christmas". Keep retreating from your original posts Lemons.

Jalima it is your opinion that their advertising campaign was crass and ill-judged not a fact. I imagine that they could not, in the history of the company, have afforded the advertising they have had.

maryeliza how right you are. However, I don't call burning at the stake very loving or caring and there is a lot in the history of Christianity which is a long way from either. I don't think the organisations and those who belong to them have changed into loving/caring ones.

You really end up talking about two things, the belief or the institution. The belief is personal and might well be loving and caring. The institutions - the various 'churches' are political hierarchies set up to place controls on people and to insist that faith can only be found through 'priests' who have access to god. There are a few notable acceptations to this such as the Cathars, but they often end up being killed as heretics because they won't submit to the will of other men but only the will of God.

The tradition of telling people how they should be Christian is a very long one and often continued on this forum.

I heard someone on Thought for the Day recently say that he doesn't know of any 'professional' Christians who took offence at the advert.

My DD works in Newcastle city centre ( Greggs birthplace I believe) and she does a funny party piece about someone asking her directions to anywhere in Newcastle .

Stranger : Excuse me could you tell me how to get to the Gate cinema please?

DD: oh yes... walk 100 yards down Northumberland street until you get to Greggs, turn right, keep walking until you see another Greggs on your left, cross the road at that point and you will pass a third Greggs, keep walking until you see the fourth Greggs ... the cinema will be right in front of you .

I love their soup too yummy and their sweet mince pies ( which I personally think are some of the best around ( short of homemade) Every Friday I used to take a box of their delicious fresh cream cakes into work for everyone .

Good old Greggs eh

It is a 'limited edition' calendar apparently - as one commentator said, bound to become a collectors' item and go for thousands on ebay (unless someone has cashed in all the tokens first, of course).

I wonder which advertising agency they use? Greggs are both taking the flak and benefitting from the publicity (any publicity is good publicity and so on) but you never hear who created the ad.

Strange, a baker not selling bread.
Of course Jalima no fault of the shop floor staff at all ( and they won’t be closing down any time soon.)

If they still sold bread we would still be going in there. Their advertising campaign was crass and ill-judged but that is probably the fault of an advertising team who think they are cleverer than they are and the management who thought this would be a good idea.
It's not the fault of the staff.

It’s strange isn’t it that loving caring Christians would enjoy seeing a business close down and thousands of people thrown out of work because of the use of a sausage roll? Luckily of course it won’t happen - some of those fulminating on here against Greggs have never used it anyway and some of us ( eg me) will now deliberately use it in the future - I believe they have a healthy eating range?

Thanks, Crafting and Anniebach. xx

Greggs is a very successful company born and "bread" in the North East .

I think the guys I work with keep our local branch going !

I Love the cheese pasties too trisher

Nope, trisher I certainly won’t......all the more for you, enjoy!

For their cheese pasties- they are great, or any of the other tasty lunch items they have on offer. But what do us plebs know? Well actually as Greggs is one of the most successful businesses, steadily expanding, what we like to eat. But then I suppose if you are not out at work or looking for something tasty for a quick lunch because you are really busy you wouldn't want to pop in and pick something up. Stop being so condescending. lemon But don't bother going to Greggs you'd just make the lunch time queue longer.

Wishful thinking lemon

I think there will be more than Maw and me not choosing to go into Greggs ( not that either of us does anyway.)
Sausage rolls presumably sell out in Greggs anyway ( they don’t sell bread, what do people go in there for?)

That's what advertising is all about, lemon, pulling stunts and getting everyone talking about them.
It worked as sausage rolls are selling out in every Greggs.
Just because it didn't work for you or Maw does not mean it didn't work.