Press Release Me, Let Me Know III

Here at Deep In The Joojoo HQ we – that’s me, my inner child and a World Cup winning footballer who has amnesia and has forgotten how to play - are all about facts. We love facts. We simply cant get enough of them. Which is why, despite the obvious sabbatical since the last instalment, ‘we’ bring a collection of fuel-injected death-ray factoids courtesy of the glut of useless emails we've received from those determined PR and marketeers of the world. Get on board the fact bus!

Shiver me timbers!

Forget Beijing, the real sporting event of the week takes place in Queenborough Harbour on Kent’s Isle of Sheppey aboard the Salty Sea Pig galleon – which is a boat. On Sunday 3rd August the world’s best will gather for the annual World Walking The Plank Championships. Organised by the fearsome Captain Cutlass - leader of the Sheppey Pirates - in order to raise funds for the RNLI lifeboat charity, the championship is open to all ‘plankers’ wishing to be hurled into the briny by sword-point as long as they can supply golden doubloons (£5) and be able to swim.

John “Long John” Lenton, a long-distance lorry driver (say that when our drunk) won the competitions in 2006 and 2007 when he dressed as a eight-foot parrot. He will not be competing this year, however, as he’s taking a break to get married. “My fiancé says I won’t be able to concentrate on the wedding if I am trying to win the plank walking championships,” he was quoted as saying.

In case you are interested, the judges grade the contestants out of ten on the following categories:
- Use of piratical language
- Originality of dress
- Execution of jump including the crucial height of after-splash
- Overall star quality known as the R (aargh) Factor.

This year’s winner will receive £100, a trophy and a case of Shepherd Neame Spitfire ale.

BYO everything

There’s big sandwich news of the week: according to Sainsburys, Tupperware sales are up 36% this year, as are sandwich bags by 25%.

The British Sandwich Association - who else can you trust? – claims the UK usually consumes roughly 2.7 billion sandwiches outside the home each year. But throw in a looming credit crunch and the possibility of a recession and suddenly homemade sarnies become a lucrative option. Ingredients for ‘fakeaways’ - homemade curry, Chinese and pizzas – are also on the rise with vindaloo curry paste burning up 33% more sales this year and plain poppadums getting dipped by half as much more as last year.

You was flirting with him, you was!!

Travel website Trivago has come up with a Summer survey that has thrown up a few cheery statistics, the most poignant of which is the fact that 60% of all British couples have a fight when they’re on holiday. Yep, of the 5300 vacationers surveyed nearly two-thirds admitted to having a row when they were supposed to be chillaxing. And the most common causes? The weather and food are responsible for around 16% of tiffs and deciding who is the boss accounts for 16%. Edging the hot topic for debate stakes is jealousy, though, with 17%.

The Spanish are the most aggressively jealous with 60% of their arguments starting from innocent flirtations. And it seems the further North you go the harmonious the less likely you'll quarrel: 62 percent of Swedish couples relax without any conflicts on their vacation. Bloody typical!

A bup-bup-boom

All hail, the United Kingdom of Great Britain has a new champion! MC Zani was recently crowned the UK’s best beat-boxer and in the doing so won the keys to a brand new Vauxhall Corsa SXI with 17” alloy wheels. Wicked!

Zani saw off mad skillz from fellow finalist, Reeps One, in front of the royal judges Beardyman, Shlomo, and Kila Kela.

Big Brother

Do you like being watched? Do you get off on having your every move under surveillance? Well, Alton Towers has got the ultimate souvenir for you. It’s imaginatively called YourDay and for a mere £19.99 you can reserve a DVD...of yourself. 100 RFID antennas, 36 cameras, 6km of data networking cable and 140 computer servers all synchronise to deliver a frightening account of all your queue waiting and scream-face antics throughout your special day at the theme park.

How’s it done? A clever wristband sends signals to Big Brother, alerting the system of your every move. Weird!

The UK greenest business

...is Marks & Spencers. Fact. According to the FOOTSIE 100 Green Winners and Green Washers Survey which polled the UK’s best sustainability experts, national and trade journalists and political groups.

Press Release Me, Let Me Know II

Unshaven, unkempt and several weeks late, I hereby present the latest installment of totally useless but intriguingly gratifying information as supplied by the barrage of PR correspondence that passed my way recently.

A-boom-cha-boom-cha-boom

The finalists have been announced for the 2008 UK Beatbox Championships, to be held at the Islington Carling Academy on June 13th.

They include three London entries, a brace from Leeds, a couple from Nottingham and some bloke called Minamus from Bristol. The legendary Beardyman – champion in both 2006 and 2007 – will be presiding on the judging panel this year and will be joined by fellow beatboxing royalty, Killa Kella and Shlomo.

Interestingly, the entire event is sponsored by car manufacturer, Vauxhall, and the overall winner will not only wear the crown of glory, but also ride away in a brand new Vauxhall Corsa “complete with air conditioning, Bluetooth technology, metallic paint and meaty 17" alloys”. Check it!


Save the cherry

Did you realise the robust British cherry is near extinction? Apparently, in the last 50 years the area in Kent under orchard has shrunk by 85% due to cheaper alternatives being imported from afar.

This is why a campaign is being launched to raise awareness of the cherry’s plight. They’re calling it, wait for it, Cherry Aid (genius!) and the cause will be highlighted at the Real Food Festival in Earls Court on April 24th, thanks to FoodLoversBritain.com. There’s even an inaugural British Cherry Day set for Saturday July 19th. I was curious to find out what other events this might coincide with, so I dug a little deeper.

Saturday 19th July is also scheduled for National Infertility Day. Hopefully there wont be too many clashes there.

Plus, Saturday 19th July is the day that the World Snail Racing Championships take place at The Cricket Field in Congham, Norfolk. It is being held as part of the Congham Church annual fete (like it isn’t a big enough event by itself!!). Allegedly, more than 200 snails (voluntarily?) take part in the races every year and the current World Champion is called Sidney. Although Sidney covered a massive 13 inch course in 3 minutes 28 seconds to claim the title he was well outside the 2-minute world record, set by the legendary Archie in 1995.

I promise you, I am NOT making this up.


Tramp!

The folks at Bouncyhappypeople.co.uk have conducted a study into the effects of using a trampoline as a way to stay healthy. According to their results, trampoline bouncing burns, on average, 35% more calories than cycling and 10% more than jogging. It also improves posture, muscle tone, co-ordination, balance as well as helps the lympahatic drainage system get rid of unwanted toxins.

The g-force involved in trampolining floods the cells with oxygen thus giving an energy boost. So, the ‘early morning hot, double-shot cappuccino whilst trampolining’ combo should keep you wired for the rest of the day (the study didn’t actually quote this. I just read between the lines)


Size Zero

Antler, makers of superior luggage, have come up with what they claim to be “probably the world's lightest structured large Roller-Case”. The Size Zero super light luggage weighs in at an astonishing 3.6kg - that’s lighter than my cat – providing a wealth of opportunity to cram in more holiday junk. And just because the case is light doesn’t mean it’ll break mid-airport dash. Apparently, durability tests on the luggage included: stacking it under 120kgs to simulate in-flight conditions; throwing it fully-loaded down the equivalent of 12 continuous flights of stairs; as well as pulling the handle 10,000 times - my only question, who was counting and did they lose count at any point? (*Ok, that’s two questions)


Rubbish

Eco-eatery, Pod, has just opened its second fast food eatery in The City. Nothing particularly remarkable about that. That is until you read some of their waste minimising and recycling stats:

- 80% of their packaging is completely compostable thanks to plant-based polymer cutlery, sugar bagasse hot food containers and PLA sandwich wrappers made from organic corn starch
- their chairs and tables are made from recycled plastic
- their uneaten food and used packaging is fed into an anaerobic digester which ferments it by mixing it with pig manure. This is then transformed into electricity which is fed into the national grid (*according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, we Brits throw away 6.7million tons of food per year)


Lolly

Lastly and most excitingly (as long as we’re blessed with a long hot summer), the cleverest clogs at Leblon – the first Super Premium white Cachaca – have come up with the Rio Popsicle, a tarragon infused Caipirinha iced lolly.



If you’ve got the wedge to wangle one of these yummy lollies you’ll need to pop along to some of the city’s more refined establishments:

- Oxo Tower
- Nobu Berkeley
- Cuckoo Club
- Mahiki
- Lost Society
- Kitts
- The Kingly Club
- Beach Blanket Babylon
- Trailer Happiness

Press Release Me, Let Me Know

In my diversified role as a journalist I receive a number of sporadic weird and wonderful press releases from all manner of PR agencies. Usually, they concern matters that in no way relate to my usual course of writing. However, some of them actually hold a few interestings morsels of information, things that I never knew or that are hot off the press. Some of these should, really, be openly shared with the world so it too can feed off the juicy goodness.

So I’ve decided I’m going to screen these factoids and carefully select the genuinely appealing ones, for your benefit, to collate into in a weekly news blog I’m calling ‘Press release me, let me know’ (a-haha). This compendium of useless information may or may not work. It all depends on what random schemes I’m sent by the PRs. So if you know of, or indeed are, a PR who has something compelling to say, let me know.

Below is the first installment and so far I think you’ll find that I’ve uncovered some quite delicious yet totally trivial stats and facts.

Charity cheeks

Hurry! You have only until March 17th to bid for Mariah Carey’s clobber. To celebrate the release of Katherine Heigl’s forthcoming movie - 27 Dresses – 27 celebrity dresses (see what they did there) are being auctioning off for charity. The worthy cause is The Lavendar Trust for Breast Cancer Care and Ms Carey has just thrown her butt-revealing pink tunic into the ring. The price now stands at £300 with three days of bidding to go.

Current bids include the ‘Feel My Hits’ Sugababes combo at £350, Danni Minogue’s long silver slinky at £376, and Lorraine Kelly’s evening gown trailing on a pitiful £102.

To see how the bids are climbing (or not) check out:

www.ebay.co.uk/27dresses

Now let’s move swiftly on to the exciting world of cheese.

Softie

Somerset Brie, Organic Somerset Brie, Somerset Camembert and Capricorn Goats Cheese are all manufactured by The Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFoB). Apparently, it takes 20 litres of milk to make their 2.4kg Brie and their Camembert, which is allegedly best served with cider, is the current Nantwich Cheese Show Champion Cheese. Well I never.

Game on

Have you ever asked the question “how many bleeding games consoles are there in the world?”. Well, hopefully this tasty data will aid your analysis.

Since November 2006, 10 million Playstation 3s have been sold across the globe. Since April 2006 (that’s less than two years), Playstation 2 has dished out over 26 million units!! This all comes about because the PSP - which sold 20 million units in the same time frame – is about to release its Go! Messenger service. Splendid entry.

Random hotel fact of the week

Lâ Hotel (as it’s cleverly known) is the ONLY British-owned independent luxury hotel in Paris and, according to Harper’s Bazaar, is ‘The Best City Hotel in the World’. It is also claimed to be the hotel where Oscar Wilde lived and died. The restaurant (cleverly known as Le Restaurant) was recently awarded a Michelin Star. How about that!?

KitKat stats

Choc fans, are you ready? The new 165-calorie-per-bar, Girls-Aloud-endorsed KitKat Senses snack is soon to be released and, accordingly, I have been supplied with some astonishing stats about the breaktime phenomenom:

- KitKat is the #1 UK biscuit brand
- Over 1 BILLION KitKat bars are eaten every year, 37 every second
- Over two-thirds of KitKat consumers are blokes
- And here’s my favourite one, if you laid out a year’s worth of KitKat Chunky production it would stetch from Land’s End to John O’Groats. FIVE TIMES!! Choctastic!

In further chocolatey news…

Eggie

Prestat, who are releasing a dark chocolate and crystalised ginger Easter egg for £22, are the purveyors of fine chocolates and truffles to Her Majesty, The Queen. No kidding?



The Wine Society Maydie

The world’s largest wine club, with over 100,000 active members, is, funnily enough, The Wine Society. It supplies over 1,000 wines at any one time. It is Wine International magazine’s “Wine Merchant of the Year”, Which? Wine Guide’s “Best Mail Order Merchant” and Decanter Magazine’s “Best On-Line Wine Merchant”. It is also the sole UK provider of a new Madiran dessert wine curiously named, Maydie. Supposedly, the wine ironically possesses many health benefits (when drunk in moderation, of course). It is rich in polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants and are thought to help repair the artery cells which feed the heart. Indeed.

ID risks

How trusting of big corporations and organisations are you? Do you feel safe knowing they have identy on file? Well, security specialists GB Group have just unveiled their annual “trust” survey and discovered some engrossing news about consumers’ feelings toward securing their personal identification details.

The stats - amusingly supplied by GB Group’s PR company, 3 Monkeys - declare banks as the safest organisation with 52% of polled consumers trusting them. Central Government only received 25% of the credence and, despite more than 45 million people in the UK owning a mobile, only 9% relied upon their mobile phone companies. Gambling companies are the least trusted with a shameful 4%. Fact me!

Let’s finish this week with a snippet about child labour….

Child labour?

Well, not quite. Eat Natural – allegedly the UK’s fastest growing snack bar with 1 million bars sold every week - are now employing kids to do the dirty work for them. Their Eat Natural Lunchies are “the first food product in the UK to be made from scratch from kids for kids without anything dodgy” according to their Media Mrs, Natashia Bartlett. Not sure about the “FROM kids” bit, myself. The wholesome, fruit snack bars are stuffed with fruit but no nuts and carry the ‘ABC’ Approved By Children logo. Basically this means a permanent ‘Eat Natural Kidsboard’ of eight boys and girls must give all products the thumbs up before it ever reaches the shelves. A bit like Tom Hanks in the movie Big, only with food. What a scoop.