No Berocca, I won’t plug your product

OK, first up I should mention this advert from some months back. It features a classic ’80s tune by “Blancmange” called “Living on the Ceiling” (here’s the music video itself).

I always thought that the ad (above) was kinda cool, but never really blogged about it here. So, it was a slight surprise when their PR guys emailed me to say..

“You may have seen the press coverage recently on the stresses of blogging we’d like you to try Berocca”

Eh? Stress? No. Not really.

“So we’d like to send you a Blogger’s Relief Pack so you can be at your best, both physically and mentally”

Hang on a minute. This is just a thinly veiled attempt to get Berocca mentioned on coolsmartphone.com. Pah… it’ll never work.

So, they sent me the “Blogger’s Relief Pack” ….

…and here’s what’s inside. First up, one of those “Dead Fred” pen holders, plus a Berocca pen. Cool. That’ll decorate my desk quite nicely. I don’t care though, because there’s no way I’m mentioning the refreshing taste of the fizzy orange drink and the vitamins and minerals contained within. Pah. No chance.

Here’s the Berocca box – inside are some tablets. You plonk them into a glass of water, it’ll fizz away and you’ll soon be enjoying vitamin B and C along with essential minerals like magnesium and zinc. Whoops.. I nearly mentioned it there…

Next out of the bag is this electronic popper thing. It emulates the bubble-wrap that packages stuff. Everyone always likes popping bubble-wrap, so this battery operated key-chain device will let you do it all day long..


A stress ball is also included. Look – a happy face. He won’t be so happy when I’m squashing the heck out of him! Hahahaha! Take that stress ball!!! Oh, wait… he’s still smiling..

This is a panic button – it plugs into your USB port and, after installing a bit of software on your machine, it will display a picture on your screen when you hit it. This is handy if you’re busy browsing eBay for stuff and your boss walks over. One whack of this button and a nice picture of your Excel spreadsheet is splashed across the screen.

What would we do without a glass ? How am I supposed to enjoy the refreshing orange taste of Berocca (available in all good supermarkets) without a glass to pour the water in?

Now, just in case you didn’t know, here’s how you can enjoy more vitamins and minerals and feel on top form each day. First, open up the tube containing the rather splendid Berocca tablets..

Then fill up a glass and plonk a tablet in.. watch it fizz, then enjoy!

So Berocca, your plan didn’t work. I’m no sell-out.