Tamworth shopper Chelsee Mosson was nonplussed, and indeed outraged, to discover a girls’ swimsuit on sale in Asda depicting the character of Ariel, minus her trademark shell ‘bra’. 

It appears that the spot purple used for that particular part of the costume, as well as ‘The Little Mermaid’ wording and other elements of the design, had somehow been omitted for all or part of the print run. Whoopsy! 

After Mosson tweeted to the supermarket that she was “absolutely mortified” to have been confronted with the inappropriate image, the story went viral and was picked up by numerous news organisations, and has since appeared in such diverse outlets as the Tamworth Herald, OK! Magazine, and the Huffington Post. 

And now, of course, PrintWeek, where we imagine an urgent quality control review is underway at the hapless garment printer. 

Asda apologised for the ‘printing error’, and the garment, rather like Ariel’s bra, has now disappeared from the firm’s website.