SWEETEST PASS THE PARCEL… EVER!
Festival-goers at Ben & Jerry’s ‘Nuts About Fairtrade’ Sundae kicked off the World’s biggest Pass the Parcel game yesterday. Designed, built and wrapped by Ministers, the parcel was introduced by a team of our performers before being launched into the audience….and then on towards the social media stratosphere. The massive parcel, which measured 2.1m x 2.1m x 2.1m and weighed a hefty 40kgs, was passed between the 12,500 flavour fans at the event on Clapham Common, London…and it will now be passed around the Ben & Jerry’s herd on Facebook via an online app: www.facebook.com/benjerryuk – they need YOU to help break the record!
As always, this event was HUGE fun; and in addition to the giant parcel (pictured below), we were once again proud to provide a varied line-up of performers ranging from pantomime cows and toe wrestlers to giant walnuts and Air Guitar Heroes.
(client: Mischief PR)
Pass the parcel, dudes
BT VISION’s GIANT FOOTBALL POOL
Ministers were out in force yesterday at Potters Fields, SE1, building the world’s largest football pool for BT Vision. The ball pool structure was 15m x 15m and crammed full of 15,000 footballs.
Balls Everywhere!
BT believes that the beautiful game deserves a beautiful price and so now, with BT Vision, customers can get Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 and watch the sport they love for just £16-99 per month. Footballers Michael Owen, Shay Given and Gareth Bale were present at the Potters Fields photocall to announce the news to the Media – and photos appeared in 4 x different newspapers this morning, with the story covered in business pages across the board.
Michael Owen in front of the biggest ball pool ever
(client – Kazoo PR)
GREENPEACE and GLASTONBURY 2010
A team of 30 x Ministers have just got back from Glastonbury, having helped Greenpeace communicate a very important message about the destruction of the world’s forests:
40% of our forest cover has disappeared over the 40 years that the Glastonbury festival has been running.
Whilst progress has been made in the support of an immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil – and the effect it is having on the climate and the plight of the orangutan – there is still much that needs to be done to secure real change on the ground in South East Asia. Our role therefore was to work with Greenpeace to offer an amazing interactive experience for festival revellers, based around deforestation. So, this year the Greenpeace field was rainforest themed, with the Globe as a stage on which we created Glastonbury’s first full musical show: “Palm Oil – The Musical”. Teams of Ministers also performed Ape TV news bulletins and a gameshow within an enormous TV set; and we produced loads of walkabout theatre and flashmobbing (with hoards of orangutans).
There was our near-legendary “Mass Wedding” – for which we had a massive 400 couples this year – and we polished everything off with a Tea Dance for The Fair Trade Foundation before a reception at which Stevie Wonder headlined.
Thanks to everyone at Greenpeace for having us – and bring on 2011!
(client: Greenpeace)
GAME SET & MATCH TO McENROE!
It’s the first day of Wimbledon and John McEnroe is back in SW19. We joined him this morning to help Robinsons recreate his 1981 outburst at Wimbledon Umpire Edward James.
Robinsons recently asked the UK to vote for the ‘Top 10 Most Memorable Wimbledon Moments’ from the last 75 years. The study of 5,000 people revealed that nearly a third of those who voted chose McEnroe’s legendary “You can not be serious!” episode as their most vivid memory of Wimbledon…with Cliff Richard’s impromptu singing performance at Centre Court in the rain of 1996 pushed down into second place.
Whatever the weather this year, Wimbledon and Robinsons are both firmly entrenched in the British Summer culture – and, however John McEnroe may have behaved nearly 30 years ago, our modern day MOF Tennis Umpire thought he was charming.
(client: Hill & Knowlton)
"You cannot be serious?!"
ONITSUKA TIGER GEISHA FUN
Today MOF helped celebrate the 5th Birthday of the London Onitsuka Tiger store by providing a couple of highly original and stunning stiltwalking Geisha Girls.
Onitsuka Tiger – a Japanese brand that makes uber cool trainers, sports clothing and accessories, if you didn’t already know - has both a rich heritage and loyal UK following; and they wanted to raise awareness of their flagship London store on (and around) Newburgh and Carnaby Street, bringing the brand to life….which the girls did, by entertaining shoppers from high, and inviting them inside for cake and discounts.
(client: Mischief PR)
A stiltwalking Geisha girl celebrates Onitsuka Tiger's 5th birthday on Carnaby Street today
ART MAKES HOMESENSE MAKE ART
Launched in April 2008, HomeSense stores are popping up all over the place and to celebrate MOF are producing a number of activities for them across the UK. Today we were in Reading with a fabulous Art Installation, which we created entirely from items on sale in HomeSense.
Whether your taste is country, modern chic, funky or a mix of all three, HomeSense gives people the chance to ‘create your home your way’ by providing an eclectic, ever changing mix of high quality, branded homeware for every room of the house (and garden) all with savings of up to 60% every day.
Look out for this installation, and teams of MOF performers, on a high street near you soon…
(client: Mindshare/HomeSense)
The MOF HomeSense Art Installation on display in Broad Street West (Reading) today
CHOCOLART – NO 3D SPECS REQUIRED
Shoppers in the centre of Birmingham were stopped in their tracks today by a magical combination of stunning 3D art…and free chocolate.
The eye-catching ‘chocolart’ is the latest piece of fun from Cadbury Dairy Milk. The chocolate maker commissioned MOF Artist, Chris Naylor, to create a high impact piece of city centre art which would spread smiles on the street. The image is on a vacant wall at the vibrant Rag Market, opposite the Bullring, and it shows giant spiralling towers of milk and chocolate being ‘poured’ into a pavement vending machine. Thankfully the vending machine was real and dispensed real chocolate for free (but today only!)
Viral video to come spiralling your way soon, so watch this space…
(client: The Red Consultancy)
Chris Naylor puts the final touches to his 3d spiralling chocolatey creation
ALVIN DANCES WITH STACEY
Stacey Solomon joined Alvin, the Chipmunks and The Ministry of Fun on London’s South Bank today to celebrate the launch of “Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel”. Enjoying the hottest day of the year, Stacey and her son Zack performed with some of London’s finest young dancers as part of the world’s first “Squeak-off”: a rodent vs human dance-off on London’s South Bank.
Alvin and the Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday 12th April 2010.
(client: Hill and Knowlton)
Stacey Solomon with Alvin and the Chipmunks at London's South Bank
WILD THINGS: LIVE!
Another “Wild Things: Live!” is over. Following the success of the 2009 tour, we took this updated production on the road to drive awareness and emphasize the conservation and rehabilitation efforts of Sea World and Busch Gardens, in Florida. We visited 6 high profile Shopping Centres across the British Isles, with a team of 10 x staff and 26 animals…acheiving more than 80 pieces of Media coverage along the way.
Our performers appeared live onstage every day alongside exotic animals, ranging from penguins, a lemur and wallaby…to a squirrel monkey and a Burmese python. Crowds were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet these creatures close-up and the message was clear: without Sea World and Busch Gardens, many of these creatures would be threatened with extinction.
Thanks to Freerange for another unforgettable tour – and thanks also to animal lovers across the UK for joining the fun!
(client: Freerange Communications)
A Burmese Python onstage in Wild Things: Live!
SOOGABABES CITV POP SENSATION
Following the news of a potential battle over the ownership of the name Sugababes, the current line-up of this hit girl group has allegedly disbanded. Reports suggest that Heidi Range and Amelle Berrabah will nevertheless be continuing as the Soogababes, alongside little panda Soo, whose previous credits include appearing with Sooty and Sweep in “The Sooty Show” on CITV and singing with Peter Kay, Postman Pat and Bagpuss in the 2009 No 1 hit single for Children in Need. For more information, take a look at: www.thesootyshow.com.
See Soo’s audition tape on Youtube here and stay up to date with all Soo’s plans for her SOOpergroup at The Sooty Show facebook fanpage here
(client: The PR Office)
Soo with her Soogababe bandmates on the House of Commons