P.Louise and Boots: The Disappearing Reward Scandal

At 6.30am last Friday, long before most teenagers had even thought about getting out of bed, queues were already forming outside Boots stores across Britain.

Some of the girls and young women had travelled miles. Others had dragged their parents from their beds before sunrise.

All were there for one reason: Paige Louise Williams had told them to be.

Days earlier, the P.Louise founder had appeared in a promotional video on her social media channels ahead of her cosmetics brand’s long-awaited launch in Boots stores, promising shoppers an irresistible reward.

Holding a P.Louise gift box full of her products, she told her followers: ‘This is what you get if you’re the first 200 to shop P.Louise in any Boots store. The first 200 people to spend over £20 get this.’

And it was no token freebie, for each box contained more than £100 worth of P.Louise products and merchandise, including lip oils, mascara, brow balm, hand cream, branded cups and accessories.

For an army of millions of young fans, that was all the encouragement they needed.

But when the tills started ringing and the shopping bags were filled, customers up and down the country discovered the giveaway they had spent hours queuing for simply did not exist.

Now, shoppers are furious after claiming they spent money specifically because they believed they would get the free gift.

One customer raged: ‘I was at the Manchester store and was the second person in. A girl in front had been there since 6am. We got there at about 7.30am, expecting the PR box like the video said. So disappointed.’

Another said: ‘I emailed customer services and put in a complaint. I was fuming, waiting since 7.30am to be disappointed. I was first as well.’

A third wrote: ‘It’s not fair at all. I waited in line in Leeds for nothing. Fuming.’

And while disappointed shoppers spent the weekend venting their frustration online, many were left in the dark about what had actually happened.

Comments flooded social media from shoppers demanding answers, while others claimed emails to customer services had gone unanswered for days. Many asked the same question: where was the promised free gift?

Now the Daily Mail can reveal what really happened.

According to Boots, the ‘giveaway’ that sent shoppers scrambling to stores across the country should never have been promoted at all.

In reality, the gift boxes were available only to the first 100 customers at the brand’s Covent Garden launch event.

The video was eventually replaced with one saying as much. But when P.Louise posted the correction, she did not mention the original video, which seemed to add to the confusion.

A Boots spokesman told this newspaper: ‘We are aware that a piece of earlier content briefly referenced an incorrect number of gift-box giveaways. This was immediately updated with the right information, and we are sorry for any confusion this may have caused.’

The retailer also confirmed that ‘thousands of customers enjoyed the experience of shopping P.Louise at Boots over the launch weekend’.

All of which only serves to underline the scale of the fiasco.

Because if thousands of shoppers descended on Boots stores across the country, how many did so believing Williams’s promise that the first 200 customers to spend £20 would receive the free gift box?

Indeed, critics are asking how such a ‘mistake’ was allowed to happen at all on the influencer’s watch. Williams has a £100million beauty empire, legions of devoted followers and a social media operation sophisticated enough to generate millions of views in a matter of hours, after all.

‘Paige knows exactly how to drive engagement. Scarcity and exclusivity are at the heart of influencer marketing,’ one source tells me. ‘When you tell customers that only a limited number of people will receive something, it creates urgency and encourages spending.

‘That video, promising all those free gifts, was up long enough for people to be influenced to spend. The problem is that people appear to have made purchasing decisions based on a promise that wasn’t actually available to them.’

While the video was ultimately deleted, it had already done its job.

‘It’s a slap in the face to her loyal fans and customers who look up to her,’ the source adds. ‘Without them she wouldn’t have this deal in the first place.’

When contacted about the situation, the Advertising Standards Authority said: ‘Our rules make clear that ads shouldn’t mislead. We expect all promotions to be conducted fairly, transparently and without causing unnecessary disappointment to participants. This includes making sure that any significant terms and conditions are made clear upfront.’

And this is far from the first time the beauty entrepreneur has been accused of ‘misleading’ her customers.

Last November, the Daily Mail revealed that Williams had sold tickets to her highly anticipated ‘Pinkmas’ event before applying for any planning permission.

Despite Williams charging fans up to £80 a ticket and promising a fully immersive festive experience, the event was abruptly called off, with Trafford Council confirming that no planning consent, building regulations or licensing applications had been submitted.

Williams blamed ‘licensing issues’ for the cancellation, but when we visited the site, it appeared far from ‘almost fully built’ as claimed.