Deliveroo fried over 'creepy' Valentine's Day mailshot

Online food delivery platform Deliveroo has vowed to review its processes after its attempt at personalised direct mail backfired spectacularly amid claims that a handwritten Valentine’s Day offer was “creepy”.

The campaign, which only ran in London, featured a promotion offering discounts on flowers and was addressed to ‘My Valentine’ in a faux, handwritten-style letter, with a printed stamp.

The missive featured the headline “Roses are red, violets are blue, find your local florist on Deliveroo” and offered a £15 discount at recipients’ local flower shops. On the reverse, the “handwritten” text stated: “Hey there Lovebird, Valentine’s Day coming in hot? Don’t panic – we’ve got a deal that as sweet as a rom-com ending.”

But, according to a report in the Independent, some recipients were less than impressed, with one person on Reddit branding the mailing “dastardly”.

They continued: “My postie was like ‘oooh that’s exciting’. Hope he never asks where it was from as I am too ashamed to admit my only valentines was a 15% off flowers voucher.

Another wrote: “From the outside it looks like a generic Valentine’s card with a handwritten address and the name is ‘my valentine’. You can only tell it’s an ad when you open it. Someone’s getting stitched up with that one for sure.”

And another user on X posted: “S*** myself at getting a handwritten anonymous valentine only to open it and it be from Deliveroo ???!?!??!”

Meanwhile, columnist Emma Clarke branded the letter “the creepiest Valentine’s Day card of my life”.

It is not known whether the envelope carried the necessart singage of “marketing material enclosed” but in response, Deliveroo said: “We fully appreciate that the copy on the handwritten envelopes for our flower discount promotion was misjudged.

“Whilst the contents of the envelopes were clearly branded and the copy was inclusive to both those treating themselves or others, we apologise for any upset this promotion has caused and are reviewing our internal processes.”

TOPICS:data-driven marketing Deliveroo direct mail