Isn't it possible that there was nothing particularly nefarious going on here? I don't know how far in advance these coupon inserts are printed up, but I can imagine that there are probably some good reasons why Unilever wouldn't want them in circulation too early and that they had simply never considered the fact that the coupons do get distributed several days early to legitimate customers. Also, since I don't get the Sunday papers anymore and for some reason the coupons are not delivered to my address with the weekly supermarket flyers I can't check this, but is there an effective date applying to all coupons listed anywhere on the inserts that the coupons are printed on?