THE STRANGEST ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS

It used to be so straightforward. Display the product or item you wished to promote in an attractive manner, have a pleasant sounding jingle coupled with a warm but believable man intoning ‘buy this thing’. What happened? Now you get all manner of ‘techno’ music, flashing lights, screaming people and animals before the blurry image of a certain roll-on deodorant appears. It’s all very confusing. Advertisers have tried a variety of baffling and obnoxious methods to sell us stuff we don’t need – often diving distinctly off the deep end. Here are just some of the worst offenders…

WEETABIX SKINHEADS

In the 1980’s, the good people at Weetabix tried to convince the populous to eat their delicious brand of breakfast biscuits not via subtle coercion, but by veiled threat. A gang of bovver-booted, bracers wearing ‘skinheads’ ordered you to eat the cereal, ‘if you know what’s good for you’. Terrifying. An entire generation developed an unnatural fear of meals. (Source)

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THE ORIGIN OF FAMOUS FINANCIAL IDIOMS

The world of economics and finance has so many buzzwords, expressions and phrases attached to it, the whole lexicon can feel like a foreign language. We use these idioms constantly in our daily lives without giving it much thought. But where do these, sometimes obscure, turns of phrase derive from? Their origins are confusing and sometimes almost unbelievable, but a selection of them are right here…

COST AN ARM AND A LEG

How often have you expressed annoyance at the high price of an object by employing this phrase? But did you ever wonder whose arm and leg you were referring to? It was actually Tsar Olag the Deranged, a fourteenth century Russian leader who became convinced his own limbs were plotting a coup against him. He offered a reward for any serfs who could help overthrow these appendages, thinking few would take up the offer. Instead half a million peasants attended his castle with the intention of taking care of these rebellious limbs for him. The Tsar was never the same again.

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THE WORLD OF WEIRD APPS

Smartphones, tablets and pocket technology has transformed the lives of many. Up to date information, maps, weather news and the whole world wide web is available instantly at our fingertips. Downloadable apps are on offer for a wide range of services and lifestyle aids, covering practically every avenue of our existence. But there are some that appear to be completely pointless, utterly ridiculous or possibly the product of a crazy person. Which, obviously, is eternally entertaining. Here are some of the oddest, most baffling and thoroughly reprehensible apps ever devised.

WILL YOU MARRY ME?



Asking the person that you love to spend the rest of their life with you is surely one of the most important landmarks in life. Make sure you sully that memory forever by engaging this app to do the hard work for you. Enter your future bride or groom’s name, plus a brief message along the lines of ‘please marry me’, hand them the handset and see their face register an expression of supreme disappointment before hailing a cab. (Source)

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Hot Rocks - Gemstones to Die For

Diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds are among the most prized gemstones known to mankind. The brilliant colours of these sparkling stones have fascinated us for a very long time. Some of the most famous ones have been deemed to have healing or magical powers or even carry a deadly curse. Large sums of money have been paid for these stunning stones over the centuries, but lesser mortals can view some of these beautiful baubles in museums, usually through bulletproof glass. Some of the priciest ones are still in private hands, so just in case you feel like putting in an offer, here’s a look at some of the world’s most valuable gemstones.

The Sancy Diamond

Henry III (Source)                                                                            Henry IV (Source) 

The Sancy is a very well traveled, pale yellow diamond of 55.23 carats. Where it was before 1570 is a mystery, but it’s thought the gem is originally from India.  In 1570, Nicholas Harlai, Seigneur de Sancy, French ambassador to Turkey, bought the diamond in Constantinople. Being pretty knowledgeable when it came to gems, the savvy Sancy took the gem back to France, where it attracted the attention of the king, Henry III (left). This particular monarch was going a bit thin on top, but rather than decorating his head with an unflattering comb-over, Henry wore a cap. Since he was a king after all, Henry wanted to look the part, so Sancy lent him the diamond to decorate his royal headgear.

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UK employers are warned...

UK employment minister Mark Hoban has issued a warning to employers who participate in the government’s welfare-to-work scheme will see promised government projects handed over their competition if they feel to provide sufficient employment opportunities for the country’s unemployed.

According to Hoban, a number of companies taking part in the government’s £5 billion funded work programme were succeeding in entering an insufficient number of people into sustained employment through the scheme. The employment minister responded by stating that should they would be checking the performances of companies invited to take part in the scheme and those deemed to be performing below standard as far as creating job opportunities would see projects that had been allocated to them would be transferred to other companies who have performed according to the standards and very clear targets set.

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Avoid the long term effects of skipping loan repayments

It would be an interesting to be a fly on the wall of most UK families when that end the month comes around when they have to calculate who gets paid and who doesn’t out of an ever declining income and ever increasing day-to-day expenses.

Unfortunately statistics show that hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped UK families are opting to skip loan repayments, simply because they can't afford to pay them as well as by food or energy for the family.

Alarming statistics show that around 20% of UK families are doing irreversible damage damaging to their credit ratings by skipping payments. In many cases “skipping payments” may occur once every few months, and are rapidly made up. However the number of families and individuals are becoming serial” payment skippers” forcing some kind of action from finance companies and banks to recover the debt,

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When the going gets tough the Brits stop going.

The British people have long been known for their fighting spirit which has seen them through major wars and internal strife. With the country now living through its long-running period of economic struggle since the depression years of the 1930s, that fighting spirit has manifested itself in an entirely different way, as UK families dig in to see the financial downturn through. Even though it has now been running for close to five years

Signs of the struggle to keep their heads above water are everywhere, with the latest being an interesting statistic that has cropped up recently showing that with an increasing number of UK families appear to be travelling less. This fact is evidenced by petrol companies reporting that their forecourt sales have fallen to their lowest level for more than twenty years even though the number of new cars on the UK roads has probably doubled since then.

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Drawing in the horns? – Take a good look at your Insurance!

When it comes to insurance there are three simple rules- what you need- what you want and what you can live without.

In times of financial pressure the average UK family would be well advised to take a strong look at their living expenses, and decide where is the best place to make cuts.

One of the most sensitive areas as well as being among the most obvious when it comes to cost-cutting is insurance. Insurance costs can make up a very large part of a family’s budget, but an area of domestic finance that in too many cases is not looked upon properly allowing costs to run away out of proportion.

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Its official - Britain has avoided falling into its third recession

UK citizens can now breathe their first sigh of relief for quite a long time thanks to the news that the economy did better than had been predicted for the first quarter of 2013, meaning that the much feared triple dip recession will not be happening.

The news has to be regarded a major boost to Prime Minister David Cameron's much maligned coalition government, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announcing that gross domestic product (GDP) for the January-March quarter actually grew by 0.3 percent instead of retracting as many have predicted, especially when the previous quarter the fourth of 2012, saw a 0.3 percent downturn. However the humiliation of moving into recession for the third time since the global economic meltdown of 2008 has been averted.Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the hard to disguise his enthusiasm for the unexpected upturn stating that the last quarter figures represent an encouraging sign that the UK economy is making progress.

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Head of the Church of England has a word to say to the business world

It hasn’t happened too often in the history of the English Church, but the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby came to the job with a lot of knowledge of the business world having been a chief executive in an oil company before donning the “cloth.”

And now Archbishop Welby, after just a month in the job, has used his business acumen to speak out on the subject that obviously cares a lot about as he continues his role to increase levels of activism of the church in aspects of day-to-day life in the UK.

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