Fosters campaign to save aussies and ramsay street residents from the flood

A quick idea to help save the aussies from the floods and recent ashes bashing. Sponsored unwittingly by Fosters.

Don't worry mate, Jim Robinson or Doc Kennedy will step in to save the day. Charlene and Scott are also on hand somewhere up Brizzy way to help flood stricken neighbours and relo's catch a flight to the safety of ayers rock - a service provided by the alice springs flying doctors service. First one to the top gets a refreshing 6-pack of watery Fosters beer. Grab your surfboards, free beers r up. P.S. Has anyone seen Harold Bishop?

See the photo as big as ayers rock on Twitpic. P.S. That's roughly the size of a Frisco's seal.

Find out about the Quantas sponsored plan B for Backpackers here sport.

Find out how aussie hat manufacturers step up to help flood victims. And how the crafty cork marketing guys dived in with a last minute packaging idea - biblical boots!

Tree things about Stella Artois trading E's for Christmas trees campaign

Saving trees and drinking beer.

Stella Artois today announced their augmented reality "Send a Card, Save a Tree" Christmas ecard campaign. Aiming to plant [or save or something like that] a million trees in the Argentinean Atlantic Rainforest [where the f*** is that], when a million ecards have been sent [wow - how many is that]. A jolly good Stella idea, which nobody can deny [US version] / and so say all of us [EN version].

Here are "tree" things I noticed.

1. It took five [gold ring pulls] to get past the [enter] DOB / location bit to even get started. The connect with Facebook link appeared to do nothing and the page kept locking up - like a mahogany chainsaw jam.

2. To get the whole 3D augmented reality xmas wizard ecard experience you need a webcam [I don't have one Santa!] and a "marker image" [WTF is that Santa?]. You are "present[ed]" with two ways to get the marker image 1. Print it out on your home printer [on paper, erm that's trees?], or 2. Download it to your mobile phone. Now, considering this is a tree-hugging campaign, I'd say the print at home option is a pretty ill-thought-out idea - no?

3. The whole thing is properly overly complicated to use, so not everyone will get to enjoy the full-bodied festive flavour. Definitely not after the 4 pint threshold. The "Claus" is lost in the confusion. There's "snow-way" my mum will get it. A simple "cut-down" version would save more trees?

I don't want to p**s on the Stella Christmas parade. It's nearly Christmas after all; a time for joy and a time for giving. Yes it's absolutely a good idea 4 good, and yes it's full of festive fun, but, maybe, M. Stella jumped the gun and didn't fully think it through? An extra day at the thinking before drinking table is worth its weight in gold/frankincense/mer[d*] [*French / Belgian spelling].

Oh, and like I said in our chat on Twitter, yes I'm very excited about Christmas and especially picking up my "sleigh-n" Christmas tree next weekend [oops!].

My campaign score card:

Goodwill: 5.0 ABV / 5.0 ABV
Execution: 8 pints [too many]
Timing: Good things come to those who wait.
Transparency: Clearly a few million email addresses to plunder is a result in anyone's book / Kindle etc.

Anyway, try it for yourself [responsibly] and tell Santa what you think in the comments box below ---> Go on send an eCard and save a tree with Stella Artois. Just do it OK.

P.S. Stella have not sent me a slab of fizzy festive fun to write this post, but I'd gladly retract some of it for an advent sized [24 x cans] slab of the wife-beater. Or a shiny new webcam.

P.P.S. Stella - have you got a cool "widget" that I can post on my blog for my blog fans to post ecards? [Whatever you do - do not scroll down].

P.P.P.S. Read stuff about other recent online campaigns that are clever - like the IKEA Facebook thing or the SonyEricsson Space Hopper thing.

Don't try this at home & PLEASE don't tell my mum

Confessions of a rocket fuelled bad dad.

It was my birthday on Halloween and the weekend after that it was fireworks night. I had some memorable times. Here are a few other stupid and spooky things that happened to me.

• I threw a rocket in the air that backfired and exploded up my back passage [stupid and noisy].


• I wore a pumpkin on my head [cool I think].


• I got stung by a wasp.


• I fell asleep [ok passed out] and woke up with a cartoon cock marker-penned on my forehead, red nail varnish, "LOVE" and "COCK" on my knuckles, lipstick [roughly applied] on my face and specs.


• Got snapped "hanging out" with my old mate Adam.


• I set off a firework in my hand and slightly burnt my hand.


• I had a firework war but I was out-gunned.


• I fell off a bar stool.


• I woke up fully clothed and in my shoes [twice].

The moral of this horror story is don't mess with your friends - they give as good as they get. Take it easy on the witches brew. Don't try this at home. And please don't tell my mum. Thanks to @rpwilson for the photo / makeover.

Idea # five: What to do when England get burnt at the Ashes

Idea # 5: Thanks to a timely prompt from monsieur JR Wossy tweet "When/if I die I would like my ashes sprinkled inside the Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld. No hurry though" . I'm reminded of England's bat for glory wash-out vs. Australia last weekend at Headingly and my need for an alternative to shooting myself. So thinking ahead to next weeks doomed 5th Test at the Brit Oval here's a little idea to keep in your back pocket. I s'pose this ones mainly for boys but at least the girls get an excuse to switch over to the tennis, so thanks all round I expect are due.

The recipe for disaster. Boys, pop out to the shops and get yourself a few cheapo tennis balls, a bat (cricket variety), stumps, charcoals, fire lighters, some matches, a crate of VB (Very Bad Aussie beer), a pen and paper - to write down the rules for "Forget the cricket let's play cricket", a fun and easy(ish) game for all the family.

The rules (because all games have them) and I like rules because they are there to be broken.

1. Invite some friends round to watch the cricket and ask them to bring some "snags or shrimps" and some XXXX.
2. Turn off the TV set. Light the "Barbie" utilising the charcoal, lighter fluid or cubes (depending on what Sainsburys have on offer), and some matches - safety of course first so I suggest chucking a genied box from afar.
3. Leave the "barbie" to burn and have a few beers.
4. When the coals are nice n ready chuck on a few "snags".
5. Wait a few minutes and then chuck on your "shrimps".
6. Have a quick beer.
7. Eat up your "bush tucker" - from a plate would be considered polite, with your fingers is just not cricket.
8. Now set up your stumps at the bottom of the garden.
9. Choose someone to bat and someone to bowl, the rest of your mates are fielding
10. The bowler bowls the tennis balls at the batsman - 6 balls and then rotate with one of the fielders. Unless you bowl the batsman out on the 6th ball which in this game means you get a magic ball to bowl at the new batsman coming in (repeat if he's out for a duck with your golden ball).
11. This games all about staying in, so the batsman only scores one point per ball survived - no need for that tiresome running either this way.
12. Batsmen can score a four by knocking a can of XXXX out of someone's hand.
13. Batsmen can score a six by hitting any can of VB - the more you drink the more you'll score - arrange them anyway you like.
14. Anyway that's about it. Play as many innings as you like (weather permitting) and tot up your individual scores to see who's the winner. Maybe get one of the girls to keep score.
15. Hit the fence and you're out, loose the ball by hitting it over the fence and you is out, knock over your own stumps and you-er out, get caught and howzatt you'z oot, catch an edge that lands in the rose bush and you are out.
16. 100 bonus points for slogging the left over hot coals over in to the (preferably Aussie) Neighbours back yard and setting fire to their gazebo, setting fire to his Guinness top hat, melting his thongs, or landing one in the cargo pockets of his ridiculous baggy shorts. Or just keep the Ashes for yourself.