Don’t Buy Bananas in Your Pyjamas

Welsh chavs are no longer to be allowed to shop in their pyjamas or barefoot. Tesco have put up notices in their St Mellons store in Cardiff saying: “Footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted.”

A spokesman said Tesco did not have a strict dress code but it does not want people shopping in their nightwear in case it offends other customers. It’s not asking a lot to be able to put shoes on is it? I’m expecting an appeal from some Whitehall do-gooder, who will object on the grounds that Tesco are discriminating against people who can’t tie shoelaces.

The spokesman said: “We’re not a nightclub with a strict dress code, and jeans and trainers are of course more than welcome.” If you currently buy your fruit and veg while in your pyjamas and Ugg Boots, I certainly hope you will be the recipient of some promotional clothing.

Promotional clothing can take many guises, with many well known brands being available to personalise. Quality corporate gift suppliers like Gift Selection can provide a great range of promotional clothing to suit all tastes and wallets.

Gift Selection can supply a complete range promotional clothing from brands like; PGA Tour, Dunlop, Dickies, Fruit of the Loom and Calvin Klein. The beauty of promotional clothing is the versatility available to the customer. You can have your organisations details embroidered or printed, practically anywhere you wish.

Your design can be as complicated as you like, as when you order promotional embroidered clothing – the cost is down to the size rather than the complexity of your design. Promotional clothing can be as affordable as a Ladies or Men’s polo shirt costing a few pounds, to as expensive as specialist work-wear that can conform to any safety regulations that you need.

If you are looking for any promotional clothing items in particular, or just want some general information – call the friendly experts at Gift Selection who will be able to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Promotional Pedometers

Air France (part of Air France-KLM), has revealed it’s thinking of preventing obese economy passengers from boarding its planes for “safety reasons”.  Under their proposed new rules, if a flight was full, an overweight person who did not fit into a single seat might have to take another plane.

At the moment, obese people buying two seats for more comfort would be fully reimbursed for the second if the plane was not full – sounds like a good deal to me! Two years ago Air France was ordered to pay £5,000 in damages to a 27-stone passenger, who had his stomach measured at an airport check-in desk before being told to buy two seats.

Airlines are big customers of promotional material, while Air France may be the first transport company to bring out a range of promotional pedometers and branded skipping ropes for their potential porky passengers. Gift Selection can offer a great range of promotional pedometers, some from as low as just twenty five pieces. Their quality promotional pedometers have functions such as step counters, fat analysers, calorie counters,  LEDS and my favourite – a panic alarm.

If you want to associate your organisation with an active and healthy lifestyle, there are many promotional products which can achieve this. Your organisation could invest in some printed drinks bottles, embroidered towels – even promotional fruit juices!

Printed Shangai Pens

The vast majority of promotional pens sold are low budget affairs, the problem being, is that if you giving a real low quality product out, can easily damage your corporate identity. When clients want a low budget promotional pen that isn’t going to cause embarrassment, one pen I often recommend is the printed Shangai.

The printed Shangai Ballpen is built for comfort, without compromising on style. With its sleek modern finish, and curves in all the right places, this promotional pen offers exceptional quality for such a low cost.

The Shangai promotional pen would make a stylish yet cost effective corporate gift, for any business to market themselves with. The Shangai is low cost branded pen is ideal for trade shows and exhibitions, where one wants an affordable branded pen – that is still going to look smart and professional.

Quality promotional product supplier like Gift Selection and pens2order, offer the branded Shangai is absolutely unbeatable value, and available in a range of striking colours, to suit every corporate identity.

If you require a sample of the branded Shangai, or you would like a visual with your artwork – this is no problem at all. If you have enquires over any of our great promotional pens, then call the friendly team at pens2order on 0870 872 8750.

Charity Sector Promotions

In the wake of the recent Haitian disaster, the British general public has donated £23m ($37.6m) to the Haiti appeal, according to the Disasters and Emergency Committee. Meanwhile the government is to treble its funding for the humanitarian response to the Haiti earthquake from £6.2m to £20m.

The Foreign Office has confirmed that thirty Britons are safe, but unfortunately Frederick Wooldridge, 41, from Kent, is the first confirmed British casualty. The PM said he was “enormously grateful” for Britons’ generosity and reassured donors their “money would get through” to those in need, adding he would not leave a “a country which has suffered so many disasters” with only “a week’s charity”.

A really simple promotional product which any charity could take advantage of, are branded wristbands. Branded wristbands are great for raising public awareness of their cause, and if bought in quantity, are very affordable indeed. Branded wristbands can take many forms, my favorite are the embossed silicone version. The beauty of embossed wristbands is their durability, while they are available in a wide range of attractive colour ways. 

Aside from the silicone version, one could go down the embroidered route if you have an intricate design. There are various models to choose from, but a quality promotional product supplier like Gift Selection can advise you accordingly.

The Very Square Mug

One of the most popular sections of the corporate gift industry are promotional mugs, with The Mugstore being a leading supplier in the UK.

The Mugstore latest promotional mug is imaginatively named Very Square Mug.If you have square or angular artwork, this is the promotional mug to show it off to its best potential. The Very Square Mug is perfect, if you’re looking for an eye catching and contemporary promotional ceramic mug.

Either with a white or a black gloss, if you have a big corporate message you need to get across, the Branded Very Square Mug is a great choice. As always The Mugstore offers super competitive prices, so call our friendly promotions team for our latest low prices or further information.

It’s like Huey Lewis used to say, It’s Hip To Be Square!

Sweet Valentine Ideas

It is that time of year again when lovers proudly walk hand in hand, beaming with happiness, there inner glow shinning strongly. I’ll most likely be spending the day in a dark room, starring at the ceiling.

Anyway, if your organisation is investing in some promotional confectionery for this romantic time, you could do a lot worse than checking out Sweets2order and browsing their latest range of Valentine related promotional sweets and chocolate.

The history of sending gifts on Valentines day, can be traced to when Paper Valentines began being popular in England in early 1800s. These little gifts were soon manufactured in quantity, and assembled in factories. Before long, ornate Valentines were made with genuine lace and ribbons, with paper lace introduced in mid 1800’s.

As a writer in the Graham’s American Monthly observed in 1849, “Saint Valentine’s Day… is becoming, nay it has become, a national holyday.” Over in the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced and sold shortly after 1847 by a chap called Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts.

From a corporate perspective, if you’re looking for branded chocolates, branded love hearts or even want something bespoke – talk to the friendly team over at sweets2order.

Cadbury Under Threat

One of Britain’s best loved businesses, Cadbury, is under threat from a hostile bid from rival confectioner Kraft. Cadbury have  reiterated that their shareholders should reject Kraft’s takeover bid, since the businesses has enjoyed an “outstanding” performance last year.

“Don’t let Kraft steal your company with its derisory offer,” was the message by chairman Roger Carr, after boasting that they where performing better then market expectations. He went on to say that “The issue looking forward for them is for Kraft to make this pay for their shareholders they have to extract large synergies.”

Kraft remains the only current bidder for Cadbury, after Swiss food giant Nestle ruled itself out, although US confectioner Hershey has previously expressed interest in a potential bid.

If you’re looking for branded chocolate for promotional purposes, then Gift Selection in conjunction with Sweets2order has hedged their bets by being able to supply branded chocolates from both camps.

My favourite promotional item from these top suppliers is the branded Cadbury Mini Chocolate Pot. This fun little promotional pot, features a vibrant full colour doming which is ideal if you have a colourful message you need to get across. The strong Cadbury brand too will reinforce the quality image of your corporate identity!

Guidelines for Marketing Alcohol

We are a nation of boozers, there’s no doubt about it. Kidney dialysis is viewed as more of a right of passage into manhood, rather than anything out of the ordinary. MPs in their wisdom are coming round to the idea that this probably isn’t a good thing; their committee report on alcohol abuse has called for tighter restrictions for drinks marketing, including the 9pm watershed for TV advertising.

I’m not sure what this will achieve as I doubt any underage drinkers are tucked up in bed by 9pm anyway. For one thing there too busy out in the streets drinking. According to the report, drinks brands spend up to £800m a year on advertising and sponsorship, dwarfing the COI spend of £17.6m. As a result of this disparity, the report suggest that for every five alcohol ads an advertiser should be required to fund one public health ad.

Simon Litherland, managing director, Diageo GB, attacked the report as “another attempt by aggressive sections of the health lobby to hijack alcohol policy-making”. He labelled the proposals on alcohol advertising and sponsorship “draconian”.

Your businesses may wish to use non alcoholic promotional drinks, as part of their marketing campaign to get their customers in shape for 2010. Gift Selection can supply all sorts quality branded soft drinks, while the European style ‘Drink Baxx’ is particularly popular. The branded ‘Drink Baxx’ is available in a great range of refreshing and healthy options, to suit all taste-buds and needs. If you require any further information on any sort of branded drink item, contact the friendly promotions team at Gift Selection.

ISBA Kick Off

Obviously we love our promotional products here at Gift Selection, but the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers hasn’t taken to kindly to Government plans too allow product placement on TV.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s ongoing consultation, ISBA said it believes the introduction of product placement would lead to a “double disadvantage” for advertisers and viewers.

It argues that the current system of unpaid prop placement, where programme makers seek out branded products to use within shows, serves both groups better than a paid system. Bob Wootton, media and advertising director at ISBA, said: “Advertisers are concerned that the existing low-cost system of prop placement will be closed off and that broadcasters will drive them into more expensive paid-for product placement.

Personally I agree with the British Medical Association that product placement should be heavily regulated in regard to such potentially harmful things like alcohol or junk food. However as the ISBA said, no viewers complaint has ever been upheld in the past 25 years. If product placement can create extra revenue for TV production, viewers will ultimately vote with their remotes anyway.

Are You Snowed In?

Even more snow is falling, much to the shock of our mild mannered general public, although to be fare I did transform into a snowman while walking to work this morning. The lowest temperature recorded on Sunday night was -14C in Eskdalemuir, south-west Scotland, while Wales saw -12.6C in Sennybridge.

If you took the car to work this morning, unless you have a butler, the chances are an ice scraper would have proved very useful. Branded ice scrapers may not be the most obvious of corporate gifts, but that is the beauty of them.

Branded ice scrapers are a great, low cost promotional item for this time of year, which are especially great if your organisation has links with the travel industry or with cold weather in general. Branded ice scrapers will make for valuable corporate gifts, as they will be greatly appreciated when one’s hands are freezing cold!

The Met Office has issued an advisory for heavy snow and widespread ice across much of the UK today, with conditions deteriorating in south-west England later in the evening. BBC forecaster Peter Gibbs said he could see no end to the freezing conditions for at least a week.

Gift Selection has a range of unique promotional items for the winter season – not just ice scrapers. There is something to suit every budget from brandable lip balms to ski jackets!