Honeyshed claims to offer the consumer something different to what has gone before but whether it will be more appealing remains to be seen. Unlike predecessors who have dabbled in the medium of online branded content, Honeyshed takes a completely open approach to advertising rather than deviously burying brand messages in entertainment. The consumer is fully aware of the product or service that the brand is promoting in order to avoid any feelings of deceit or trickery. “It’s based on the idea that people love brands and don’t mind being sold to if it’s completely transparent”, said Andrew Essex, CEO at Droga5. “This will make brands the life of the party rather than the uninvited guest.”

The website shuns traditional forms of advertising like banners or rollovers for a mix of live programming and character-driven sketch shows paid for by, and promoting, sponsors which collaborate with Honeyshed to come up with suitably entertaining content aimed at the notoriously hard to reach demographic of 18-35 year olds. There are three sections – one offering studio-produced shows while a second focuses on episodic content that revolves around brands and the third consists of contests and sweepstakes.

But is this really a recipe for success? In an age where brands are forever paranoid about ad evasion, are people actually going to take the time to visit a site just for the ads? The ads may be dressed up in entertainment but surely if you wanted to watch entertainment you would rather watch unbranded content in the comfort of knowing that there is no ulterior motive lurking beneath trying to tap into your consumerist desires. Perhaps we should congratulate Honeyshed for its blatant and unashamed consumerism but I have a feeling people will revolt rather than be allured.

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Product placement is nothing new if you think of the shampoo samples in magazines or point of sale stands in supermarkets, however this is not directly targeted and gives no guarantee that the product will be tried out in the right place at the right time by the right potential consumer.

Consumers are no longer passive sponges but rather experienced and demanding creators so traditional advertising methods simply won’t cut the mustard. Brand Connections is one of the largest marketing and media companies in North America and is at the forefront of the tryvertising network. Hotels and resorts have been the biggest investors so far in this new marketing form and it is clear to see why. When people arrive on holiday, they are without their familiar products and almost always leave behind essentials such as shampoo and toothpaste. Cue tryvertising. Not only will the consumer be grateful for the product but they will also have ample time to trial it and will associate that brand with happy memories so it is more likely that they continue to use the product once home.

The trend has travelled to South Africa where Jonathan Cherry has set up cherrypicka.com, an online brand showcase on which manufacturers provide free samples for consumers to try. Members of the website pay a ‘test ticket price’ which is 30-40% of the retail value of the item. Cherry remembers, “I was at a wine tasting when I cam up with the idea. I realised that when wine marketers do their campaigns, they let people taste. No other business really does that, lets you form an opinion”.

Once consumers have taken the product for a test drive they can review it on the site. While brands such as Taittinger Champagne and Pronto condoms have already signed up, it seems that others are slightly more weary of the potential backlash of this freedom of speech but Cherry encouragingly suggests, “Isn’t it better for them to know what people are saying rather than them discussing it around the braai (barbecue)?”

Tokyo has taken the concept one step further – we would expect nothing less – by creating ‘The Sample Lab’, a member’s only dedicated space which invites consumers to sample and test new products. As well as being able to try out everything in the shop with a special powder room for the ladies to sit and try out beauty products, members are allowed to take home up to 5 items per visit.

Nike is one of the first brands to test the waters in Europe with its Nike Trial Vans which are currently touring the UK/Ireland, France, Italy and Spain, stocking 1,000 pairs of shoes. It’s a free trial, no strings attached and in true tryvertising style the vans will be in places where people actually run, from athletic events to well-known running spots. So it’s only a matter of time before other ballsy brands cotton on to the idea and get their products out there. As trendwatching.com rightly pointed out, “Introducing yourself and your products by letting people experience and try them out first is a very civilized and effective way to show some respect to a cold, calculating, experienced, and demanding consumer.’’

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We all want to live greener lives these days but often find it too hard, too confusing or too futile to make a habit of it. Green Thing is for those of us - and there's a lot of us - who don't get turned on by the tree-hugging thing, the guilt thing, the scientific thing or the world-is-at-an-end thing. Green Thing is an easy thing, a fun thing, a creative thing and a community thing.

As lots of small things can add up to more than a few big things, Green Thing suggests one easy thing a month to tempt as many people as possible to do it. Like Weight Watchers, Green Thing celebrates smaller steps which lead to meaningful change over time. Green Thing is also free which makes it easier to be part of. And because entertainment is very inspiring and lectures a bit less so, the monthly Green Things are suggested with brilliant content from a growing community of brilliant writers, musicians, designers, directors and artists - pro and am, young and old.

Green Thing has raised over £600,000 of in-kind donations and commitments from this community of passionate donors.

Ultimately, this initiative is about people power. If we all contribute to Green Thing, it will become as creative, as credible and as irresistible as it can be. If we all do the Green Thing, it will make the biggest impact it can make.

Because people want to know that their action is making a difference, Green Thing is endorsed by some of the planet's leading environmental thinkers and reports back every month on the collective difference the whole community is making.

Those endorsing and advising Green Thing include Nobel Peace laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, Satish Kumar, founder and editor of Resurgence magazine, Alex Steffen, co-founder and executive editor of WorldChanging.com, and Cathy Zoi, chief executive officer of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.

Green Thing's mission is to get as many people in as many countries as possible to do the Green Thing to prevent global warming and then leverage that people power to get government and business to do the Green Thing too. So it's ambitious. But it needs to be. Surprisingly few people are taking serious action to make their lifestyle more sustainable and a NASA scientific report just concluded that the IPCC may have dangerously underestimated how fast things are changing: "Civilisation developed during a period of unusual climate stability, the Holocene, now almost 12,000 years in duration. That period is about to end."

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In the game, the protagonist's shadow transforms into a dragon when he fights, a fact dramatically brought to life by seven storey high projections on the Shibuya Prime Building in Tokyo which mingled the actual shadows of passers by with pre-programmed 'shadows' of fantastical beasts to the surprise and delight of onlookers. Intrigued parties not in the vicinity could also interact by introducing new characters in real time from the comfort of their PC.

Against Breast Cancer - Lap Dance - www.aabc.org.uk/campaign/dancer.html

Taking on a charity client pro bono has long since been a shortcut to great work and doing a good deed and AMV BBDO's viral for Against Breast Cancer is no exception. In fact, it may prove more effective in raising male awareness of breast cancer than a host of ribbons and fun runs. As strings and sultry vocals create a mood somewhere between seedy and salacious, we’re drawn into a dimly lit lap-dancing club where a curvaceous dancer is entertaining her patron. The shock comes as she discards her bra to reveal that her right breast has been removed, leaving only the scar tissue of a mastectomy.

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