I see the same article coming up on various local media feeds about the Loblaw's grocery chain 'No Frills' launching a clothing line. According to the nearly identical articles, many posted online with the #Hauler hashtag, the clothing line 'Hauler' is being launched in a celebration of savvy, frugal shoppers, and is a nod to how No Frills views its customers: individuals smart enough to know healthy, fresh food doesn't have to cost more.

According to Mary MacIssac, vice-president of marketing for Loblaw's discount division quoted in every article, "It's a cool way of celebrating these customers, and doing it with this No Frills swagger,". 

While it is irritatingly normal to come across an article in a mainstream news outlet that is quite blatantly just a press release, something struck me about the recent promotional campaign for Loblaw's new 'Hauler' clothing line via it's No Frills outlets. 

While most news outlets, including the Financial Post,  Halifax Chronic Herald, CTV News, carried the exact same story had nearly identical articles credited to 'The Canadian Press', Toronto Star went a step further and had the press release re-written by in-house writer Ilya Benarez who added no additional information, and the article was under the heading of 'GTA', meaning it should be a local story about something happening in the Toronto area. 

Loblaw's major clothing brand, Joe Fresh, was described by it's designer Joseph Mimram as having a 'killer price point'. It's only reasonable to assume this latest Loblaw's clothing product line will have that in common as well. 

No mention of any controversial issues related to Loblaw's past in any of the articles. 

In fact, not one major media outlet has even asked where the clothes are made. 

Not one media outlet commented in the slightest on Loblaw's history of sourcing clothing at the lowest possible cost from extremely unethical contractors, sometimes with deadly results, most notably the devastating 2013 fire at the Rena Plaza clothing factory Bangladesh that killed 1,130 people. 

Not one media outlet mentioned Loblaw's continued use of what can only be described as slavery in China's brutal factory system that is widely known to use prisoners and even school children. 

The clothes are bright sunshine yellow with assorted images of bananas and/or a parking lot and/or words on them. You can buy them at a No-Frills grocery store in the near future, or pre-order online at The Hauler Shop Online.

But don't.