The Sun has dismissed a Daily Mirror marketing campaign attacking its tabloid rival as an “embarrassing stunt”.
On Wednesday, the Mirror distributed copies in London with a specially printed front cover that could be folded into a hat giving wearers “Sun protection”.
Branded lip balms were also being distributed with the line “Sun protection. Read the intelligent tabloid” along the side.
A Sun spokesman said: “They should spend more time taking a long hard look in the Mirror and contrast their recent stories with the exclusives in the Sun.
“In July the Sun and Sun on Sunday recorded the biggest sales increase of any newspapers, the daily paper now averaging a million more paid sales than the Daily Mirror. Perhaps their staff and readers would prefer it if they invested in actual journalism, rather than embarrassing stunts.”
News UK’s tabloids performed strongly in July thanks to stories including the Lord Sewel exclusive and singer Lily Allen’s collapse at Glastonbury.
The Mirror’s tongue-in-cheek campaign is part of the paper’s “Don’t Say Stupid” brand campaign to differentiate it from its tabloid rivals.
It follows the “Eclipse of the Sun” billboard and online campaign that ran during the solar eclipse in March, which said that the Mirror’s total audience was greater than that of the Sun.
While the Sun sells about double the number of newspapers each day as the Daily Mirror, the paywall at the News UK title means that the Mirror has vastly more online readers.
