this isn't just a couple of innocent smoothies bobble hats on. ...well, actually it is just a couple of innocent smoothies with bobble hats on, but its more than that too.
me and my friend Charity met for breakfast this morning at EAT on Tottenham Court Road where to our surprise and joy the entire shelf of innocent smoothies were adorned with bobble hats.
it turns out that 50p from the sale of each bottle (25% of the retail price) goes to Age Concern. so a great case study of a Christmas-season promotion to make people feel better about spending £2 on a bottle of crushed fruit. well yes, and no...
of course its a marketing campaign with the aim of getting you to buy more smoothies, but the promotion doesn't stop at the shelf... the Innocent smoothies blog directs you to the Supergran flickr group, where you can view pics of all the hats different people have knitted, as well as the people who've knitted them. it really doesn't feel cynical or false, its a promotion that seems to have galvanised a community of people to get knitting for good.
and thats the real joy of this promotion. when you learn that each hat is individual and hand made, and that for the last six months thousands of volunteers have been knitting hundreds of thousands of bobble hats. for smoothies. for us to buy. so that Innocent can sell more bottles and give money to Age Concern. its actually all a bit crazy when you think about it, but I guess thats why I like it.
so to Innocent smoothies and moreover to all the volunteers who have worked for half a year to knit hats for bottles of fruit... we salute you.
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