Top of the PR Pops: August

Hello folks, it’s inspiration (work-related procrastination) time! Here is our pick of the jolliest summer campaigns launched this month.

Doritos + The LAD Bible = The Summer Bible

What happens when you leave tortilla chips and a bunch of 18-34 year old guys in a room?

A #12HourHoliday challenge that #OnlyTheBold will dare to take on.

Doritos challenged The LAD Bible to a series of dares on a 12 hour trip to Ibiza.  The LADs filmed their antics in a bid to inspire us all to make the most of summer.

Did you know that The LAD Bible is one of the most popular sites in the UK with an eye-watering 14 million unique monthly visitors? And, over half of the UK male 18 - 34 year old population follow The LAD Bible. Stat!

The LAD Bible’s influence plus Doritos’ brand recognition makes this a business and personality partnership with some serious clout. 

Why was Cantona’s image on the White Cliffs of Dover?

Ah! ça c'est #LeBigSwim! Eric Cantona's projected image resplendent on the white cliffs of Dover announced his intention to swim the English Channel for @Kronenbourg1664 - très amusant.

The digitally-led campaign includes a mini series of videos, the third of which has been watched over 800,000 times. It also happens to be my favourite, seriously, check out the collar on his wetsuit!

Oh, and in response to the original question, why? Mainly to keep men sipping that sweet 1664 nectar over the summer. Good work marketers.

Remember the Ice Bucket challenge?

photo: YouTube ALS-AL

Well, all that virality helped to raise over $100m for the ALS association. The truly great news is this money helped to fund research which lead to a major breakthrough. ALS researcher Jonathan Ling wrote:

"All of your donations have been amazingly helpful and we have been working tirelessly to find a cure...there's a lot of hope and optimism now for real, meaningful therapies."

And to keep the momentum, ALS Association will be looking to transform the ‘moment into a movement’ every August until there is a cure.

A proud moment for online citizens and testament to the power of social media.

Bathstore scrubs up lav’s image

We came across this rather refreshing advert by bathroom retailer Bathstore.

Its John Lewis-esque nostalgic narrative inspired us to treat ourselves like royalty and invest in a new throne...then we remembered only a handful of the London based team actually own our bathrooms!

Oh those clever creative folk at Saatchi London.

And finally, Selfridges launches Christmas...in August

It’s August, the hottest summer month in some parts of Europe. So Selfridges opens their Christmas shop, naturally.

It seems being the first store in the world to launch your Christmas wares is the annual retail holy grail. And in doing so, we’re jolted into a tailspin of premature Christmas campaigns.

Selfridges' Christmas store has made a bit of a splash in the news, plus I’m curious about those £220 bottles of Anty Gin (yes you read correctly). Their ‘first to launch’ tactic should set them up to line those festive coffers and pave the way for a decent trading update in January.
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