Fizzy Drinks Blasted

A staggering proportion of consumers associate fizzy drinks with severe health problems such as obesity, a new report have revealed.

Some one in four adults in the UK believe that carbonated drinks are one of the main causes of obesity while nearly three-quarters claim that they are bad for your teeth, according to the YouGov Sixth Sense study. Commenting on the findings, research director for YouGov Sixth Sense James McCoy said: “The perceived health risks related to soft drinks are, for the most part, the same ones that have been around for years.

Costa Coffee Booming

Costa Coffee will open the first of its planned Metropolitan stores in London today, as it looks to lure city workers with its latest design of outlets.

The new design, which includes exposed brick and express till areas, marks a departure for the company, which is looking to replicate the success it has achieved outside metropolitan areas.

The Costa Coffee Metropolitan stores will have a focus on speed of service for customers in a hurry. The first store on Great Portland street will be followed by similar stores in other cities, likely to include Manchester and Birmingham.

According to Costa, the design changes will include simplistic use of materials such as exposed brickwork, glass, stone and timber, quirky lighting and bold artwork. There will also be a focus on serving hot food in a bid to take a greater share of the breakfast market. Meteorite is supporting the launch with a targeted campaign, which will run across outdoor, online, direct marketing and in-store activity.

Rival Starbucks last year rolled out retro branding across its UK stores, tapping into its origins as a local coffee house. It opened its first heritage store on Conduit Street in London. The concept store featured unique furniture pieces from antique markets around Europe, including a Turkish coffee table and metal tables made from a disused tank.

Dunk Me

Bronte has unveiled two new biscuits, having taken its inspiration from two of the nation’s favourite biscuits – custard creams and bourbon creams.

Weighing 65g each, its Giant Custard Cream has a crumby biscuit base and top, filled with a creamy custard centre, while the Giant Bourbon Cream has all the features of a traditional bourbon with a full-on chocolaty filling.

Debbie Ballach, marketing manager for Bronte said; “This new format offers consumers something that little bit different. We are taking a unique approach to two of the nation’s favourite biscuits and our consumer tests revealed the potential popularity of these products… both biscuits are made to be nut and GM free recipe, do not contain preservatives or additives, are suitable for vegetarians and use only the best ingredients.”

If you’re still reading this, you’re probably not shy of biscuit or two (can’t say I blame you). We don’t just supply branded mugs, we can offer branded biscuits too. Branded biscuits are a premium item and something that can give a great touch to any corporate event.

ASA Rule Over Starbucks

In the ultra-competitive oligopoly of the coffee world, Costa Coffee has gone one up against Starbucks ,after the rival coffee chain’s complaint to the advertising watchdog about Costa’s provocative ‘7 out of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa’, campaign was rejected.

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled in Costa’s favour, after carrying out an investigation into the ad campaign which debuted in March last year. Starbucks had complained that the ads’ headlines “Starbucks Drinkers Prefer Costa” and “7 out of 10 Coffee Lovers Prefer Costa” were misleading, and that the research behind Costa’s claim was invalid.

The issue was that the phrase was believed to imply a preference for all Costa products, when it referred only to cappuccinos. Costa, which no longer uses the ad, disagreed and argued that the headline claims on their own were meaningless and were therefore incapable of substantiation.

The ASA ruled that no further action was necessary prompting Jim Slater, marketing director of Costa Coffee, to say: “Costa has been totally exonerated. The adjudication is good news, but not a surprise.”

Grean Tea Gets Green Light

Tetley has announced that its Green Tea line has achieved number one status in the retail market for the first time after claiming a 30.5% share. The green tea category is currently worth some £17m per annum and is rising at a rate of 12.7% MAT.

Peter Haigh, brand development manager at Tetley for Out of Home, said: “Our blenders have an expertise in developing products that are particularly suited to the UK palate and as such we have helped to give green tea a mass appeal. We are delighted that the work we have put in to raise the profile of the new category is now coming to fruition.”

In further news, the first packs of Tetley to be bear the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal became available to buy through wholesalers and cash and carries in May. The packs are only available to out of home caterers allowing operators to be the first in the UK to service the product prior to them becoming available nationally via retail.

Storm in a Tea Cup

A Devon farmer attempted to gain European protection for the term ‘Devon cream tea’, but residents of neighbouring Cornwall, claims that their county invented the concept.

Paul Winterton, who is general manager of Langage farm in Plymouth, claimed that he has the interests of customers at heart: I feel people are being short-changed…with an excellent food like the Devon cream tea, you need to know its origin.”

If he wins, only teas produced, processed or prepared in Devon could claim to be cream teas, in the same way that Cheddar cheese must come from the Somerset town.

Mike Pearce of Cornishcream.com responded, saying: “There is only one cream tea, and that’s the Cornish cream tea. The application should be thrown out.” The precise geographical origin of the cream is much contested in the region, as is the way to serve it.”

What’s In Your Pint?

I tend to put beer in my pint glasses, but some people see the world differently and put other thing in them. Amphibian keepers at the Slimbridge Wetland Centre, Gloucestershire have raised eleven poison dart frogs in pint glasses, filled with, you guessed it, Red-bush tea.

The caffeine-free African tea contains fungus-beating antioxidants, according to amphibian keeper Jay Redmond. Mr Redmond said: “Every morning just before I made my cup of tea I made sure the tadpoles have had theirs too!”

The yellow-banded and green-banded poison dart frog tadpoles were raised in pint glasses, topped up with the shop-bought red-bush tea, which is sometimes called rooibos. Mr Redmond added: “It is a bit of advice that people know in the industry that to keep them disease-free they should swim in red-bush tea for the first few weeks of life.”

Rollercoaster Mugs

We recently made some promotional mugs for Alton Towers, which everyone agreed came out really well. They went for dye sublimation Cambridge mugs, which seem to be our specialty at the moment.

With this mind, it made me smile when I heard in The Mirror that thrill-seekers on Alton Towers’ new Th13teen rollercoaster are being given protective pants to stop embarrassing’ accidents on the ride. Theme parks bosses have taken the measure after ride hosts reported several ‘embarrassing’ incidents involving riders on the coaster, which boasts the world’s first free-fall drop.

A spokesman for Alton Towers said: “We have had reports of several unfortunate incidents on TH13TEEN involving riders who were not prepared for the most shocking part of the ride.

“It contains many surprising elements as it takes riders on an exhilarating journey, so, in response, we have decided to make protective underwear freely available in the hope it will make both riders and our staff feel more secure.”

You Say Potato I Say So

Branded shot glasses are a fun promotional item, that are great if you’ve got a grown up brand with a mischievous side. If you’re looking for a large scale promotion, low cost branded shot glasses in vibrant colours will be ideal. If you want something more of a corporate gift, an engraved glass model will look great.

Vodka isn’t just for Russians you know, us Brits are getting into the spirit of things too. The British brand Chase Vodka has triumphed in the 2010 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, beating 249 rivals from around the globe, including Russia and Poland’s finest.

Tasted under blind conditions (all the bottles were covered to maintain anonymity), Chase was preferred by a 30-strong panel of independent judges. And instead of being produced by one of the global drink giants in a huge, automated distillery, Chase is made on a farm in Herefordshire - from potatoes. First produced in 2008, Chase is the brainchild of potato farmer William Chase, the man who founded posh crisp company Tyrrell’s.

Mine’s a Pint

                                      We supply a fair amount of branded pint glasses here, which make for excellent promotional items for pubs and alcoholic drink suppliers, as well as for sports teams too. We love fun promotional items, designed for people’s leisure time, and a quality branded pint glass is a great example.

If you have been known to frequent the occasional public house, you’ll be pleased to learn that Carling is sending vouchers offering a free pint to two million households in a bid to persuade more people to visit their local pub or club. Carling said the campaign was in response to the ongoing effects of the credit crunch - pubs are closing at the rate of six a day and 2,000 outlets have closed in the last year.

Special point-of-sale packs have been sent to all outlets participating in the promotion, which will run until 21 June. However this isn’t the first time that Carling have had a patriotic style promotion, as Carling’s 2009 marketing programme to celebrate its use of British barley, was also a success.

If you are looking for promotional material to give out in your pub, perhaps for the world cup, then contact the friendly team over here and at Gift Selection. Gift Selection can supply a full range of promotional products to get everyone in the mood for South Africa 2010.