Shop in Kuwait caught sticking googly eyes on fish to make them look fresher

The googly-eyed fish image has been widely shared on social media. Photo / Twitter

A fish store has reportedly been shut down after owners were caught sticking plastic googly eyes on fish in an attempt to make them look fresher.

Images of the unconvincing "fresh fish" were shared on social media showing one of the fake eyes slipping off the fish.

Kuwaiti police has shut down a fish store that was sticking googly eyes on fish to make them appear more fresh than they are. :-)
via Al Bayan newspaper, @bayan_kw. pic.twitter.com/CcPa73fDQh

— Mohamed El Dahshan (@eldahshan) September 1, 2018

The incident, which happened in Kuwait, led to other rival fish stores advertising their fresh fish "without cosmetics" with a picture of a fish and a selection of coloured contact lenses.

Outraged customers took to social media to slam the fish shop's ploy.

"That is gross, and bad business practice, but I can't help [but] laugh at the same time. Did they honestly think people wouldn't notice?" one person wrote.

Another said: "Never judge the freshness of fish by the googliness of their eyes."

Never judge the freshness of fish by the googliness of their eyes. https://t.co/hW50lwpwCz

— Matthew Dalby (@MatthewJDalby) September 1, 2018

This violates the basic premise of googly eyes. Googly eyes make everything better, except for old fish! pic.twitter.com/ALPmKdvMLv

— Googlyness (@googlyness) September 2, 2018

pic.twitter.com/6Z767oYLqt

— Sean Johnson (@SeanDoubleJ) September 2, 2018

Despite the ploy, some Twitter users praised the fish store for their ingenuity.

I just really wanna know who had the brilliant idea of putting google eyes on their fish I just wanna talk https://t.co/jtCihaFS3M

— Val ➰ (@Valerynicoleee) September 2, 2018

my strongest-held belief is that extremely creative crimes that don't involve maiming another person should be allowed https://t.co/LJlW3oR11F

— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) September 1, 2018

In July, another Kuwaiti fishmonger was accused of stuffing his fish with steel nails to increase their weight and market value.