Sex & Tea.... How Odd?

It seems that an odd new trend might be developing, which sees our favourite hot beverage suddenly becoming linked to sex. Both PG Tips and Yorkshire Tea have new ads hitting the small screen that rely on something that I can't imagine being further from a cup of tea in any way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bothered by the subject but I'm not sure I'd want my tea brand linked to sex. It seems like an odd coupling to me (pardon the possible pun there?). Anyways, the ads are live so I'll let you judge for yourself.

PG Tips

Johnny Vegas and his pal Monkey do the Meg Ryan "fake orgasm" scene from 'When Harry Met Sally'. The spot, which was created by Mother, is all about just how excited Monkey gets over his cup of PG Tips when johnny asks him to describe just how good it tastes. The scene is done as an almost 100% imitation. It is set in a cafe very similar to 'When Harry Met Sally' and sees Monkey shouting "Oh yes!", to have a woman at a nearby table tell the waitress: "I'll have what he's having". The ad finishes by asking viewers to find their way to best describe the taste of tea.


Yorkshire Tea

Yorkshire Tea have just launched a new ad for their 'Teatime's Important' campaign. The ad sees a young couple stop what their about to do to enjoy a nice cuppa. The ad, created by Beattie McGuiness Bungay, shows a Yorkshire couple enjoying a very passionate embrace before the young man whispers (in an extremely prominant Yorkshire accent) "would you like a cup of tea?" His counterpart is delighted by the offer and the pair put things on hold to have a cup of Yorkshire Tea before continuing their fun.

Nike Red - Lace Up, Save Lives

I am absolutely loving this new campaign from Nike to support AIDs campaigning. It's not fantastically original, in my opinion, as it's essentially a rehash of the Make Poverty History - White Band campaign, but at the same time it's great to see someone like Nike using their sponsorship commitments for something so worth while. The influence that these lads have is just so huge that I think they're the perfect people to promote this kind of topic. It helps bring it out into an arena that a lot of young people, blokes especially, wouldn't talk about or openly support otherwise.

Basically Nike have recruited some of the biggest sports stars from their sponsorship ranks to help raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. The campaign uses the tagline 'Lace Up Save Lives', and features a cast of athletes including Liverpool footballer Javier Mascherano, Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Arsenal's Andrei Arshavin. All profits from the sales of the new Nike (Red) laces goes to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

This is just one of a series of partnerships that have been launched between major international brands and (Red), which launched last November to create awareness and a deliver a sustainable flow of money from the private sector into the Global Fund. Partners of the fund are allowed to add the (Red) mark to their products and in return make a significant percentage contribution of the sales/profits from that product to the Global Fund.

There's also a nice slideshow of images from the campaign:

Tweetup In An Elevator

I was reading through my RSS feeds earlier this morning and I came across this great post by Jeff Pulver.

On Monday afternoon, Jeff unexpectantly found himself part of a 75+ minute tweetup in an elevator, at the New York Times. Jeff was at the offices to attend a discussion on social media and the Haiti Disaster (which incidentally was really good according to Jeff). Andrew Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, moderated the discussion and a number of Jeff's friends were there as speakers; including Ann Curry from NBC News and the Today Show, Rob Mackey who is a staff writer The New York Times, Erik Parker who is a journalist that was in Haiti when the earthquake struck, and Jason Cone who is the Communications Director for Doctors Without Borders.

Following the meeting, Jeff was chatting to Ann Curry as they made their way, with 9 others, to the elevator. Without too much thought the 11 passengers boarded the elevator on the 15th floor and awaited the short ride down to the lobby. The doors closed, and their decent commenced. Oddly though, the elevator missed the lobby by about one and half feet below the lobby. What transpired then couldn't have been scripted. Jeff found himself trapped in an elevator with what he describes as an amazing cast of characters. The group included: Ann Curry; Jennifer Preston, Social Media editor of the New York Times; Geo Geller, Jeff's friend who documented the experience; Ann Blinkhorn, an executive recruiter; Phil Thomas DiGiulio, Co-founder of @pegshot; Alex Howard, Associate editor at SearchCompliance.com; Todd McCarty the new Senior Vice President of Human Resources at the New York Times and just a single individual wished to stay anonymous.

The alarm was immediately sounded and building maintenance confirmed they were on the way. What surprised Jeff most was that almost just as quickly, the cameras came out and photos and video were captured. Although signal was bad Jeff was finally able to tweet "Stuck in the elevator with @anncurry @geogeller @holaphil and 5 others in New York Times building." Jeff also commented that the conversations in the elevator were fun and enjoyable, and the experience turned into a pretty amazing and unplanned tweetup and a chance to get to know a bunch of people whom I would never would have otherwise had a chance to spend time with. 75 minutes passed and the doors opened, and everyone went back to their various tasks and chores.

When Jeff woke up yesterday morning he was a little startled to read about his experience in Gawker. Further to this, the story took on and even more surreal feeling when Ann told the story in the opening of the Today Show by sharing the video captured by @holaphil.

If this isn't a clear indication of the level of interconnectivity that we now have as a society, I don't know what is. While people may not know each other in person, may not have a clue what someone else does or even looks like, there is a common thread connecting us. A kind of digital shadow that allows us to all share our experiences and become part of something larger. I think it's safe to say that it is an evolution of the human condition, facilitated by technology.

On Social...

At the end of last year, Giles Rhys Jones spoke at a being digital mashup event. I've unfortunately never had the opportunity to meet Giles but I reckon if this video is anything to go by, there's a serious interesting conversation to be had.

BBC: The Virtual Revolution

This is the introduction to The Virtual Revolution, a new BBC four part series about how the web is changing the world. The show's presenter, Dr. Aleks Krotoski, has already created quite a buzz throughout the Twittersphere with the shows conclusions and comments, and while I wouldn't agree with all of them, I think there's a lot of food for thought. The first episode was on BBC2 on Saturday and there is a repeat this evening. For full details, visit the BBC Virtual Revolution website.

Thanks to Damien for reminding me to blog this :)