fancy seeing your words on our bottoms?

Yep. You read it right. Your words. On our bottoms.

A couple of years ago, we ran a competition to come up with funny stuff to go on the bottoms of our bottles.

Loads of you entered, it took us weeks to whittle down the entries and in the end, there were so many gems, we decided to pick 7 winners instead of 3.

Since we're all about fresh and finger-on-the-pulse type thinking (and because our bottle man, Simon O, thought it was high time our bottoms had another face lift) we're doing it again.

So if you fancy writing something funny for our bottoms and having your words read by millions, here are the rules:

• Messages must be 40 characters or less.
  
• Spaces, hyphens, apostrophes and stuff all count as a character.
  
• Leave your entry as a comment to this blog post.
  
• Fill in the email bit when you leave a comment so that we can get in contact with you if you win.
  
• As many entries per person as you like.
  
• Extra points for making us laugh.
  
• Our 3 favourites will be used on millions of bottles across the land. Something to tell the grandkids/impress future spouse/pop on the CV.
  
• We'll send the 3 winners lots of smoothies too.
  
• The deadline is Midnight on Sunday 31st January
  
• So be quick (and funny).

This competition has now closed. thanks to everyone who entered. We're going to read through them all this week and then announce the winners next week.

flat pack pets

You might have noticed our rabbits hanging around recently

 

Since we're not allowed to bring pets to work, we bought this rabbit from The Garudio Studiage in lieu of installing a hutch in the office.

 
He currently lives on top of the shelf in Creative Corner, near the coin counter.

Flat pets are perfect for people who don't have enough space in their homes for a real pet or have a tendency to kill houseplants just by putting them on their desk.

As well as rabbits, you can also get White Kitten, Neon Ginger Kitten and Golden Yellow Labrador Puppy.

The best things about these pets (apart from never having to bother with cumbersome things like triggering allergies, emptying litter trays or dealing with worming tablets) is that they don't need a pet passport 

Meaning you can pop them in your suitcase and take them wherever you like.

Brilliant.

 

And when it comes to moving house, you don't need to get a special basket to transport them in or worry about them getting lost in the new neighbourhood.

 
  

The excellent Chris at Garudio has given us 6 flat pack rabbits to giveaway.

All you need to do by Monday 1st February is tell us the best name for your flat pack bunny and where he/she will live in your house. Top 6 names and locations win a hassle free house pet.

This competition has now closed. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. Well done to Jo B, Fran, Anthony, Kate, Em and Linz.

Hope that Fwuffles, Crumpety Jack, Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater, Tyson, PN and Ikea are all very happy on their respective windowsills/desks/imaginary wolf scaring stations.

new zealand's hottest home baker

Well, hopefully.

Our Eddie's sister, Monica, is currently competing in Kiwi TV sensation. New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker.

Eight budding bakers from across New Zealand battle it out through cupcake combat, sponge flan fighting and icing duels to secure a place in the final Bake Off.

The host, Colin, looks like the love child of David Dickinson and Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, so it's worth watching just to see him diffuse the bun fights (not his hair).

 
 
Monica loves baking and you can see her here in training with the unofficial best Kiwi baker in the land, Noelle (a.k.a Eddie's mum)

Since you can't actually watch the show over here, we'll keep you posted on Monica's progress and any top tips she gets whilst on the show (including how the presenter gets his locks so silky soft).

talent stamina

Busy week planned? Got thousands of hopeful talent acts to sit through and judge with a wry eyebrow? Need to keep your energy levels up but no time to nip out for a quick sandwich or trip to the coffee machine?

Well if you need a rider to get you through the day without having to ever having to leave that massive judging chair, here's what Simon Cowell's Britain's Got Talent survival kit looks like

 

All in a portable plastic box (though noticeably not wearing a seat belt)

Talk about a Si Five to your 5-a-day (sorry)

does Bear Grylls drink our kids smoothies in the pouring rain whilst being filmed by amateur paparazzi?

Of course he does. He's a real man, doesn't even need an umbrella.

he's snow grouch

Siobhan's friend, Rose, sent us this photo of the snowman her dad built the other week

 

Actually, to be precise, his creation is in fact a snow representation of Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street

 

And if we're going to be incredibly precise, then you should know that Rose's dad is a semi retired nuclear medical physicist and the ski suit is essential to his creative process.
 

rabbit food

This is not a post about detoxing. Repeat, this is not a post about detoxing.

 

We just wanted to make it clear that although the rabbits in our ads are asking about portions of fruit and what not, smoothies and fruit aren't actually very good for real life rabbits.

Leafy greens, grass and specially bought pellets are all fine. And the odd carrot treat is okay too. Smoothies and fruit just give them upset tummies which makes for unhappy hutches.

 

You might also be interested to note that rabbits produce two types of droppings. There are the hard dry pellets shaped like brown peas and there are also softer moist pellets that rabbits eat directly from their bottoms. These are an essential part of their diet. Allegedly.

There's more information here but essentially, keep the rabbit food for rabbits and the smoothies for you.

End of message.

nippy out

In case you've missed it, things are all about the rabbit round here at the moment

 

And just so none of us forget about the rabbit, we've had some smart hooded tops made up in bright warming colours to keep us looking and feeling proper toasty.

 
 

We have four of them to give away, in an array of random sizes.

Pink = 14

Green = 12

Blue = XL

Purple (or violet if you're being specific) = XL

All you need to do to win one is tell us the best resolution you've managed to keep by Monday 25th January and we'll pick the 4 most applaudable (and convincing) entries.

Don't forget to put which hoodie you'd like in your answer. Other wise it'll be pot luck as to what you get (and you never can trust a pot).

This competition is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered. Congratulations to Alpha Mummy, Keenan, Lex and Matty who all win themselves a rabbit hoodie.

May your calling your grandmas, feeding imaginary bunnies, talking like Eliza Dolittle and not-eating-anything-with-the-word-'pie'-in-it resolutions see you well in 2010.

another advert with a rabbit in it

A while a go we made our first ever advert for the telly with a chicken in it, and then we made an advert with a rabbit in it. We quite liked it so we've made another one, and here it is.

If you fancy seeing it on real life telly here’s a selection of the most choice appearances in his schedule: Today at 21.45 during Slumdog Millionaire, tomorrow at 22.50 during Ocean’s 12 and on Saturday at 20.45 during All Star Mr & Mrs. Keep your eyes peeled.

peppersmiths

Roll call from left to right: Ed, one time star of an innocent love story. Mike, one time innocent mo grower, award winner and extreme snowboarder. Shrimp, one time innocent interviewee. And Dave, one time innocent grass van break down victim. That's right they all used to work with us here at Fruit Towers.

And now they're back together again, in variations on a theme outfits, like a 1980's boy band reform, making the best chewing gum in the land.

 

After their first 2010 Q1 park bench meeting they’ve unanimously agreed to give away a big box of gum (and some smaller ones for runners-up) to a lucky winner who can answer this probing question.

Instead of using synthetic rubber as a chewy base for gum, Peppersmith make theirs with chicle. Chicle is:

a) freshly laid chicken eggs 

b) the sap from the rainforest’s Sapodilla tree 

c) one half of Britain’s finest comedy siblings

Just leave your answer as a comment to this blog post and Ed, Mike, Shrimp and Dave will do the rest. Trust them, we trained them well.

This competition has now closed. Big well done to Karen who wins the bumper box of gum and handclaps all round for Steve, Rachael, Stefanie, Philip, Suzanne S, Sophie, Harry, Sue, Tim D and Leanne R who all win a packet. Fresh breath winging its way to you right now.