The Guinness world record holder for the person with the longest fingernails in the world has lost them in a car crash – only in the US. Lee Redmond, of Salt Lake City, Utah, sustained serious but not fatal injuries in the accident. Whether these injuries were the result of her ridiculously long nails or not I’m unsure.  Her once record-breaking nails, which hadn’t been cut since 1979, measured in at 35 inches before the accident.

I think this was God’s way of hinting that better personal hygiene was in order. If your staff are looking like they could do with a manicure - then promotional nail files makes a handy corporate gift. Personalised nail files make for a cost effective marketing tool, that would work well as a mailer.With this personalised nail file and polish set, your clients and staff will keep looking their best. This promotional beauty product would make a welcome addition to any ladies handbag. Alternatively it would a great promotional product for any business involved with the beauty industry.

A portly Yorkshireman who was told by officials that he was too fat to adopt children, has sprung into action and lost an impressive 19lbs in three weeks.

Morbidly obese Damien Hall weighed in at a stocky 156kg, which was deemed unacceptable Leeds City Council. It seems bizarre that there are thousands of single teenage girls giving birth across Britain with no one batting an eye lid, while the council are quick to act if a chubby gentlemen wishes to adopt a needy child…

Every credit to Mr Hall, and no doubt to his wife Charlotte too for helping him reduced his BMI. Despite his impressive weight loss, it has not reduced enough yet for him to be eligible. However the Department for Children, Schools and Families has said that it does not prescribe a maximum weight for adopters to local authorities.

At this rate Mr Hall will have his own range of healthy promotional products. He could be the new face of promotional water or personalised low cal sweets…

With lent officially kicking of 40 days of good behaviour, what if anything will you be giving up? With sugary sweets off the agenda for those wanting to take the spiritual high ground, it may be time for healthy promotional items to shine.

Did you know that Lent is an old English word meaning ‘lengthen’. Lent is considered to be the start of spring - when the days begin to get longer.

Interestingly the church has quite rightly been encouraging the British public to cut their carbon footprints during the next 40-days of fasting and prayer. Both the Bishop of London and Liverpool have been promoting a carbon free Lent, by suggesting we all remove a light bulb from our homes. The brains behind the carbon fasting scheme was Rev James Jones(Bishop of Liverpool) who said: “There is a moral imperative for those of us who emit more than our fair share of carbon to rein in our consumption.”

With this in mind, eco friendly promotional items seem to be the order of the day. Ecoproducts2order has a complete range of environmentally friendly promotional items - that are sure to get the church’s blessing.

Remember those lovable USB men I brought you from gadgets2order a little while ago? Well those eye catching USB people picked up a Promotional Gift Award 2009 for best Communicative Product. The winning promotional products where picked from a record number of 297 submitted entries, sent in by 196 hopeful companies.

 The USB people were victors due to the high standards of design that went in to the individual professions such as doctors, businessmen and sports stars. As well as being able to choose characteristics such as hair, eyes and accessories, these fun promotional items can also carry personalised advertising messages on them.

On orders of 50 USB men, buyers can choose from one of several standard colours and apply their own logo. A 250 USB man orders can select from a number of predesigned sports, medical or corporate characters. While a bespoke character USB man, is available on an order of more than 500, where thee uniform or strip for any client, campaign or event can be matched.
 

If you would like more information on what is possible with USB men, or would like a quote or a sample, them the friendly team at gadgets2order are always on hand. Remember to watch this space, for more information about award winning promotional products, coming to a desk near you.

Collapsed bank Northern Rock is to rise from the ashes, by offering mortgage to business with up to £14bn in new loans by 2011, Gordon Brown has announced.

The Newcastle-based bank is expected to take on a respectable £5bn in new mortgages this year, rising to a predicted £9bn by 2010. This cash injection will arrive from new deposits, repayments on existing loans and even more government money. Meaning tax payers will be putting their hands in their pockets again. These plans are part of wider move to restructure the nationalised bank, and show a U-turn in the government’s decision to cut down its loans.

With confidence in the entire banking system at an all time low, this is the time for certain promotional items to shine. With anxiety surrounding high street banks, a promotional piggy bank may turn out to be a very warmly received corporate gift. At least with your very own personalised money jar, one can keep an eye on all that hard earned cash.

Since the French parliament has passed an advertising ban for public television there has been strikes around the capital. A couple of weeks ago, the National Assembly decided that from 2011, the four major state-financed channels, will no longer be allowed to broadcast advertisements. This legislation took affect from the 5th of January, while in the mean time TV ads will only be allowed before 8 pm.

However before any advertisers start feeling to sorry for their French cousins, the state is to compensate for a loss of advertising incurred. President Sarkozy new law means that €800m (£600m) in advertising revenue, will be immediately transferred to private stations. As much as the poor old BBC is slated from domestic viewers, the French President’s advisors have been studying the BBC’s model in an effect to improve the quality of French television. Public station journalists are understandably concerned that without commercials, they will not have enough money to make good programmes and their audience share will diminish.

With TV ads being off the menu, and French media works starting to calm down, promotional products may be order of the day for French businesses to market themselves with.

Last night I saw the multi Bafta winning ‘Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.  This eye opening film is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and is about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backward. Despite the Sunday Times only giving this an underwhelming two stars, it has been nominated for a whopping 13 Oscars.

The leading lady (Kate Blanchett), finally realises her true feelings for Benjamin after years of messing about. What women wouldn’t feel anxious about ageing, while the handsome Brad Pitt becomes more youthful every day? What Kate would have appreciated is some quality promotional beauty products as a corporate gift. A personalised vanity mirror for example, would make a stylish promotional item that any lady could keep with her at all times!

A really cost effective promotional item is lip balm, which can be imprinted with your logo and easily distributed to potential clients. Giftselection has a great range of imprinted manicure & grooming sets, and personalised recovery packs which will appeal to both men and women.

The Brit awards has had a solid track record in providing eyebrow raising television. Whether it be Geri Halliwell’s revealing dress back in 1996 or Kazakhstan’s most famous export calling the Pussy Cat Dolls prostitutes, the Brits has had its fair share of iconic moments.

My personal favourite was when a young Jarvis Cocker paraded his pale cheeks, when he invaded the stage when Michael Jackson was performing Earth Song. Good Times. 

With all this glitz and glamour on the box, it may inspire you to have some promotional awards and trophies made up for your own business. There is a great selection available to the consumer whether it be lead crystal or glass that your looking for. Giving a promotional award or trophy is the perfect way to add some sparkle to your office, and is a great way to represent the achievements of your business or staff this year.

 Environmentally friendly promotional products have never been so popular, and rightly so as the business world becomes accustomed to the consequences of global warming.

With eco corporate gifts taken many forms, one is often left wondering which is the most eco friendly promotional product. It seems the answer has been under our noses the whole time. Promotional USB memory drives are actually the unlikely hero of the green revolution.

How can a promotional product be so eco friendly when they are not biodegradable, and tend not to be made from recycled materials. The answer is that you’re humble personalised USB flash drive is actually saving hundreds, if not thousands of trees.

It has been estimated that a typical USB flash of 1GB, can hold enough documents that would be the equivalent of fifty trees. What is more, every time the promotional flash drives memory is reused the number of tree lives you have spared multiplies. Also your business can now purchase the USB drives pre-loaded with your business’ custom data on, and save thousands of pounds in printing costs, as well as helping the environment.

Promotional USB drives can be especially eco friendly, as now they are available in various green materials. A stylish option would be a wood or maybe a bamboo flash drive, with  recycled plastic options also available.

If you take the swoosh away from Nike, what are you left with? What would happen if Apple lost their apple and Shell misplaced their Shell? If your business doesn’t have a logo at the moment, then you’re missing out on that instant recognition - which every large business needs.

Your logo will be your business’ hardest worker – your employee of the month all year round. Your logo provides the essential service of communicating in a moment the whole philosophy of your business.

Something this magnitude shouldn’t be taken lightly. A great logo is something that every business should have. Often with logos - less is defiantly more. However resisting the temptation not to over complicate things is a challenge. Remember a picture says a thousand words. You need to think which are the thousand words that will best match your business’ ethos.

It is always worth taking considerable time to get your logo perfect, because once it is set in place - it is not advisable to change. Certainly one should never change their business’ logo just for the sake of it. Marlborough has been associated with cowboys for as long as anyone can remember - and the business is still as popular as it has ever been.

Thinking of the right theme to associate your logo with can be crucial. Certain brands lend themselves to certain topics – while others are less obvious. Nike for example, predictable relates itself to sporting excellence. Obviously sports may not relate to your business – but this isn’t a problem. Let’s take coca cola for example…a simple fizzy drink.

A stroke of genius, created Coca-cola’s association with Christmas. So much so that Coca–cola creating the red Santa, that we all know and love. Could you imagine seeing the original green Santa now? Would you want to sit on his knee, and tell him what a good boy you’ve been all year? No I’d want to know who this impostor was – posing in a damn green suit! I’d be pulling his beard – convinced that I had been fobbed off with a stooge. It’s incredible to think, that all this was down to marketing from a simple drinks business.

Printing your logo on promotional merchandise is a smart move for any business - no matter what their size. When ordering promotional gifts from an expert like gift selection, we will be more than happy to create or develop a logo to print on your products. If your thinking of some ideas for your new logo here are a few pointers we would always recommend:

☻ A logo that is simple and sophisticated will stay in people’s minds rather than a loud and vulgar one.

☻ A logo needs to be original and distinguishable - with a bold and striking design that is easily recognisable from everyone else.

☻ A logo needs to summon a mental image that matches perfectly with the ethos of your business.

☻A logo shouldn’t be extremely tall or wide for practical reasons – and shouldn’t be associated with any current fads. Timelessness is the key to any successful logo.