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Market Drayton loses meerkats race
Thursday 24th February 2011, 11:29AM GMT.
Market Drayton has lost out to “Meerkat Harborough” in the race to be twinned with the home village of the famous meerkat character who fronts television adverts.
The Shropshire town lost out to Leicestershire’s Market Harborough in an online vote organised by bosses at price comparison company Compare the Market.
Market Harborough grabbed about 60 per cent of the vote on Facebook and Twitter after going up against “Meerkat Drayton”, “Weston-Super-Meer”, “Windermeer” and “Downham Meerkat”.
The winning town will be twinned with Meerkovo – dubbed the long-suffering Russian meerkat village, which is home to Aleksandr Orlov, the aristocratic meerkat character who fronts the adverts.
By failing to win, Market Drayton has also missed out on a £5,000 prize laid on by organisers for community projects.
The town’s chamber of trade urged people to back the vote in the hope a victory would raise the town’s profile and pave the way for spin-off economic benefits.
Thousands of votes were cast in the poll by visitors to a Facebook page and Twitter feed.
On his Facebook page today, character Aleksandr congratulated the winning town and is pictured beside a Meerkovo road sign which says the village has been twinned with “Meerkat Harborough”.
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Lost out? Why on earth would any town apply to have it’s name used in free advertising for a commercial web site?
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Er, because the town stood to win a £5k prize for community projects at time when community project grants are being cut?
No brainer really!
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Q) Should this story be classified as a ‘newsvert’ or an ‘adnews’ ?
A) Neither, it should be called free-advertising and hats off to the VCCP ad agency.
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Nothing to see here. Move along please.
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The panel probally made the mistake of visiting unpoliced Market Drayton and either slipping in dog dirt or being verbally insulted by one of the many town drunks.
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