purplecat

You're viewing

purplecat's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: site light

Occasionally I get handed things at Lime Street Station. Generally, you know, small samples of deodorant or, on one occasion, a small squishy pig which, apparently, was not a toy.

Today I was handed a free loaf of Hovis which I find rather surreal. It's in a brown paper bag which says "Wholemeal Challenge" and "Feel Healthier or your Money Back!". Although, as my colleague pointed out, since we didn't pay anything for our Hovis, this is something of an empty promise. Why I should consider being given loaves of bread any more surreal than being handed squishy pigs remains a mystery to me.

If I was sufficiently interested I could find out more at http://www.hoviswholemealchallenge.com

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

curia-regis.livejournal.com

What was the squishy pig supposed to be for then?

From:

purplecat

You know, I have absolutely no recollection - which demonstrates what a terrible piece of marketing it was... or possibly how useless I am at absorbing marketing. I once got market researched by someone who showed me stills of lots of department store adverts and the entire conversation consisted of repetitions of

ME: Oh yes! I've seen that advert.
MARKET RESEARCHER: What store is it advertising.
ME: Umm... ASDA?

(Except for Woolworth's because I remembered that there was a pun on the names of the two characters and worked out the Sheep was probably called Woolly)

Anyway, the pig had a URL on the side.

Edited Date: 2009-01-08 12:18 pm (UTC)

From:

curia-regis.livejournal.com

Ah, but you remembered it was a squishy pig. *g* Maybe next time you're given one of them, you'd be OOOH I GOT THIS BEFORE and then you'd remember it?

Who knows?

I don't tend to remember ads either.

From:

bunn.livejournal.com

I understand a lot of this branding-related stuff is not so much to make you remember the whole proposition, so much as, to produce a sense of warm familiarity when you see the name again. So if you are looking at a list of names, you are more likely to pick the one that seems vaguely familiar and have happy 'they gave me a pig' type feelings, even if you can't remember exactly why.

It's a very difficult thing to measure!

From:

purplecat

This suggests my Market Researcher had got things a bit turn about. She should have given me a list of stores to rank in order of familiar happy feelings and then the list of adverts to order similarly. Then she could have gone away and had fun with a stats package.

I'm not sure what happened to the pig. We kept it around for a while but I suspect it has long been consigned to the black binliner of cheap and crap bits of plastic we would really prefer China didn't make in such quantity they can be given away as free gifts with virtually anything you care to name that's aimed at the pre-teen market.

From:

lukadreaming.livejournal.com

I once got a plastic duck for the bath at Birmingham New St *g*.

From:

purplecat

What was it advertising? or do you not remember either.

From:

lukadreaming.livejournal.com

Not a clue! I actually went through the barriers twice to get a second one to see if I could find out what it was advertising (I'm sad like that *g*). So I doubt it counts as one of the successful campaigns of our time!

Otherwise New St is a trap for those unable to dodge market researchers. I'm lucky -- my job's at the top of their 'do not touch with a bargepole' list!

From:

reggietate.livejournal.com

I now want a squishy pig of my very own *g*

I find all advertising tends to be incomprehensible these days - either that or so annoying it makes you determined never to use the product :-)

From:

purplecat

I'm keeping the Hovis. I doubt I'll be convinced to switch from Warburtons but free bread is free bread and we have house guests tomorrow.

From:

reggietate.livejournal.com

At least bread is useful, unlike squishy pigs :-)

From:

purplecat

Indeed. Particularly more useful than squishy pigs which are not toys.

From:

reggietate.livejournal.com

Perhaps it was meant for a stress-reliever, like the squeezy balls you sometimes get.

From:

wellinghall.livejournal.com

Hah, just what I had been going to say.

From:

purplecat

IIRC it wasn't that squishy. At least it wasn't as squishy as the stress relieving squishy computer mouse Amazon sent me in those far off days when it wasn't required to make a profit.

From:

purplecat

IIRC it wasn't that squishy. At least it wasn't as squishy as the stress relieving squishy computer mouse Amazon sent me in those far off days when it wasn't required to make a profit.

From:

wellinghall.livejournal.com

Ah yes, I remember the days of Amazon free gifts ...

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Profile

purplecat

February 2026

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28

Tags

100 papers [10]
absent friends [2]
academia [94]
- dead scientists [2]
- edinburgh informatics [3]
- groups
  - dream [2]
- impact [1]
- public understanding [28]
  - lego rover [21]
- publications [57]
- scientists
  - aaron sloman [1]
  - alan bundy [4]
  - douglas hofstadter [1]
  - john mccarthy [2]
- talks [22]
- teaching [1]
administrivia [1]
agents of shield [1]
ai [28]
- agents [24]
  - ail [9]
  - bdi [11]
    - goals [2]
  - groups [3]
  - languages
    - agentspeak [1]
    - oopl [1]
  - organisations [3]
- automated reasoning [7]
  - rippling [1]
  - sat [1]
  - smt [1]
- ethics [7]
- explainability [2]
- hybrid systems [1]
- knowledge representation [1]
- lego robots [1]
- planning [1]
- robotics [4]
aisb [10]
amazon [1]
anecdote [1]
arthuriana [6]
bernice summerfield [6]
- review [5]
birthday [11]
books [54]
- author
  - andrew cartmel [3]
  - ben aaronovitch [4]
  - c s lewis [1]
  - charlotte bronte [1]
  - craig hinton [2]
  - david mcintee [1]
  - david whittaker [1]
  - dorothy l sayers [1]
  - iain m banks [2]
  - ian rankin [2]
  - j r r tolkien [1]
  - jacqueline rayner [2]
  - jane austen [1]
  - jeff vandermeer [1]
  - jim mortimore [1]
  - jonathan blum [2]
  - justin richards [3]
  - kate orman [2]
  - kelly hale [1]
  - lance parkin [4]
  - lawrence miles [6]
  - mags halliday [5]
  - malcolm hulke [1]
  - marc platt [2]
  - mark michalowski [3]
  - mary stewart [1]
  - megan whalen turner [3]
  - michael moorcock [2]
  - neal stephenson [3]
  - paul cornell [4]
  - paul dale smith [5]
  - paul magrs [11]
  - philip purser-hallard [10]
  - phyllis ann karr [1]
  - rob shearman [3]
  - rosemary sutcliff [2]
  - sara paretskey [1]
  - shakespeare [1]
  - simon guerrier [2]
  - terrance dicks [2]
  - terry pratchett [1]
  - tolkien [3]
castle [1]
christmas [2]
class [7]
- review [7]
computer science [15]
- complexity theory [4]
- game theory [5]
  - economics [1]
- np problems [1]
- verification [3]
  - induction [1]
conferences [3]
- aamas [1]
- arw [1]
- clima [1]
conventions [6]
- eastercon [11]
  - 2010 [2]
  - 2011 [4]
  - 2012 [1]
  - 2015 [1]
  - 2025 [1]
- lass o gowrie [1]
crochet [41]
- amigurumi [11]
- garment [5]
- moogly cal [9]
- non-euclidean [10]
current events [25]
dark [1]
- icons [1]
diary [14]
doctor who [1027]
- books [55]
  - annual [9]
  - cover [59]
    - benny adventure [1]
    - eda [6]
    - misc [9]
    - missing adventure [1]
    - new adventure [13]
    - nuwho [2]
    - pda [10]
    - target [17]
  - edas [2]
  - nas [4]
  - new series [9]
  - pdas [1]
  - storybook [1]
  - time and relative disse [5]
- comic [11]
  - fifth doctor [2]
  - first doctor [3]
  - fourth doctor [2]
  - second doctor [2]
  - sixth doctor [2]
  - third doctor [1]
- costume bracket [133]
- factsheet [1]
- fandom [2]
- fanzine [8]
  - channel d [1]
  - dwb [2]
  - skaro [1]
  - tides of time [1]
  - web planet [4]
- fiction [1]
  - martha [1]
  - thirteen [1]
  - yaz [1]
- icons [78]
  - ace [1]
  - adric [1]
  - amy [1]
  - amy+rory+river [1]
  - barbara [1]
  - barbara+ian [1]
  - ben [1]
  - bill+nardole+twelve [1]
  - chang lee [1]
  - clara [1]
  - cybermen [1]
  - dalek [1]
  - dan [1]
  - doctor+master [1]
  - dodo [1]
  - donna [1]
  - eight [1]
  - eleven [2]
  - eleven+river [1]
  - faction paradox [1]
  - fifteen [1]
  - four [1]
  - four+leela [1]
  - four+sarah [1]
  - fugitive doctor [1]
  - grace [1]
  - graham+ryan [1]
  - harry [1]
  - ian [1]
  - ice warriors [1]
  - jamie [1]
  - jamie+victoria [1]
  - jamie+zoe [1]
  - jo [1]
  - katarina [1]
  - leela [1]
  - liz [1]
  - martha [1]
  - mel [1]
  - nardole [1]
  - nine [1]
  - nyssa [1]
  - one [1]
  - osgood [1]
  - peri [1]
  - polly [1]
  - romana [1]
  - romana1 [1]
  - romana2 [1]
  - rory [1]
  - rose [1]
  - ruby [1]
  - sara [1]
  - sarah [1]
  - sarah+three [1]
  - sea devils [1]
  - seven [2]
  - shalka [1]
  - silurians [1]
  - six [1]
  - sontarans [1]
  - steven [1]
  - susan [1]
  - tegan [1]
  - tegan+turlough [1]
  - ten [1]
  - the master [3]
  - the rani [2]
  - thirteen+yaz [1]
  - three [2]
  - turlough [1]
  - two [1]
  - unit [1]
  - vicki [1]
  - victoria [1]
  - yaz [1]
  - zoe [1]
  - zygons [1]
- new series [6]
- nuwho rewatch [72]
- paper dolls [79]
- picture [233]
  - ainley master [2]
  - alien [1]
  - amy [1]
  - amy/rory [1]
  - barbara [1]
  - behind the scenes [16]
  - bill [1]
  - bonnie langford [1]
  - cast [3]
  - christopher eccleston [1]
  - clara [1]
  - convention [1]
  - daphne ashbrook [1]
  - david tennant [1]
  - delgado master [3]
  - donna [2]
  - dvd cover [5]
  - dwm [4]
    - cover [2]
  - eighth doctor [1]
  - eleventh doctor [4]
  - eleventh doctor episo [8]
  - elizabeth sladen [1]
  - exhibition [2]
  - fanart [9]
  - fifth doctor [4]
  - fifth doctor episode [7]
  - fiftheenth doctor epi [1]
  - first doctor [4]
  - first doctor episode [16]
  - fourth doctor [5]
  - fourth doctor episode [11]
  - frazer hines [2]
  - fugitive doctor [1]
  - india fisher [1]
  - jamie [4]
  - jo [3]
  - joanna lumley [1]
  - jodie whittaker [4]
  - k9 [1]
  - leela [2]
  - martha [3]
  - matt smith [1]
  - mickey [1]
  - missy [1]
  - monster [15]
  - new adventures [1]
  - nicholas courtney [2]
  - nicola bryant [1]
  - ninth doctor [1]
  - ninth doctor episode [1]
  - patrick troughton [1]
  - paul mcgann [1]
  - pearl mackie [2]
  - peri [2]
  - peter capaldi [1]
  - production team [1]
  - puzzle [1]
  - river song [1]
  - romana [3]
  - romana 1 [1]
  - romana 2 [2]
  - rose [4]
  - rowan atkinson [1]
  - russell t davies [1]
  - sara [1]
  - sarah [4]
  - second doctor [6]
  - second doctor episode [9]
  - seventh doctor episod [6]
  - shalka doctor [1]
  - sixth doctor [5]
  - sixth doctor episode [4]
  - susan [1]
  - sylvester mccoy [2]
  - tardis [3]
  - tegan [2]
  - tenth doctor [2]
  - tenth doctor episode [12]
  - the brigadier [1]
  - the master [3]
  - theatre [2]
  - third doctor [5]
  - third doctor episode [2]
  - thirteenth doctor [2]
  - thirteenth doctor epi [2]
  - tom baker [2]
  - turlough [1]
  - tv movie [1]
  - twelfth doctor episod [4]
  - unit [1]
  - vicki [1]
  - victoria [3]
  - villain [1]
  - web planet [2]
  - william hartnell [2]
  - yaz [1]
  - zoe [1]
- rec [1]
- review [433]
  - book [34]
    - non-fiction [7]
  - film [1]
  - tv [399]
    - classic [150]
    - new new series [15]
    - new series [233]
- russell davies [3]
- steven moffat [2]
- the randomizer [152]
- verity podcast [1]
- whordle [4]
dolls [78]
- lego [5]
  - nasa [3]
- paper dolls [79]
dreamwidth [3]
edinburgh [8]
- festival [1]
exercise [18]
- running [37]
  - london marathon [19]
facebook [5]
faction paradox [3]
- review [3]
family [12]
- b [23]
  - animals [1]
  - dinosaurs [16]
  - fossils [4]
  - media stardom [19]
- cousins [1]
- days out [1]
- g [4]
  - school [1]
fandom [4]
fandom friday [2]
fandom stocking [1]
fanfiction [4]
feminism [5]
films [8]
follow friday [7]
food [51]
- heston blumenthal [1]
- recipe [40]
fools and heroes [11]
fossil friday [57]
friends [2]
genealogy [16]
granny's diary [5]
grimm [1]
- icons [1]
history [4]
holidays [66]
- cleveland way [5]
- cornwall [3]
- hadrian's wall [23]
- inca trail [9]
- orkney [13]
- ridgeway [3]
- scotland [2]
- snowdonia [5]
- wales [2]
- west highland way [9]
house [16]
i have no tag for this [25]
i saw this last week [110]
icons [47]
- castle [1]
- ladybird books [1]
- pikmin [1]
iris wildthyme [5]
- review [4]
jobs [3]
kin-strife [10]
linkspam [21]
livejournal [14]
lizzie bennet diaries [1]
mathematics [21]
- formal proof [1]
- logic [1]
- non-euclidean [10]
- philosophy [6]
  - proof [2]
- verification [1]
mcu [2]
- icons [1]
  - natasha [1]
media stardom [7]
meme [66]
meta [1]
model checking [4]
- systems
  - java pathfinder [3]
oxford [1]
performing [1]
- music [1]
philosophy [8]
- ai [2]
- ethics [2]
- mathematics [3]
picspam [113]
- castle [32]
- hobbit hole [6]
- house [2]
- inca ruins [2]
- prehistoric monument [100]
- roman remains [13]
- travel [64]
  - holidays [43]
  - work related [22]
pokemon go [2]
- icons [1]
primeval [59]
- fiction [1]
  - becker [1]
  - blade [1]
  - crossover [1]
  - lester [1]
  - ryan [1]
  - ryan/stephen [2]
- icons [4]
  - abby/ryan [1]
  - becker [1]
  - becker/lester [1]
  - becker/matt [1]
  - becker/ryan [1]
  - blade/lester [1]
  - claudia/lester [1]
  - connor [1]
  - connor/lester [1]
  - danny [1]
  - danny/ryan [1]
  - jess/ryan [1]
  - lester [1]
  - lester/ryan [1]
  - nick/stephen [1]
  - ryan [1]
- review [45]
programming [14]
- ail [1]
- languages
  - agentspeak [2]
  - jason [1]
  - java [5]
  - maude [2]
  - prolog [2]
projects
- eass [13]
- mcapl [13]
- platform grant [1]
- rais [2]
- verifiable autonomy [1]
- vps [2]
random doctor who picture [290]
random poetry [1]
rant [6]
reading listening watching [96]
rec [1]
- humour [1]
resolutions [14]
review [591]
- book [136]
  - non-fiction [37]
    - history [25]
      - science [9]
- comic [2]
- film [9]
- tv [409]
  - class [6]
  - internet [1]
  - merlin [2]
  - sarah jane adventures [5]
  - survivors [4]
roleplaying [24]
ros [1]
science [1]
science fiction [2]
science
- astronomy [1]
  - apod [1]
share
- twitter [2]
social networking [3]
- google+ [2]
- tumblr [1]
star wars [2]
- dolls [1]
  - lego [1]
the expanse [2]
- icons [1]
  - crew [1]
the prisoner [1]
- icons [1]
theorem proving [6]
- middle-out reasoning [3]
- proof planning [5]
  - critics [2]
  - rippling [3]
- proof specification lang [2]
- systems
  - isabelle [2]
  - isaplanner [4]
  - maude [1]
  - proof general [3]
- theory slicing [1]
- tptp thf [3]
throwback thursday [53]
- an oxford childhood [12]
- ancestors [3]
- arthurians [6]
- conventions [1]
- dad [3]
- docsoc [1]
- family [1]
- larp [3]
- oules [1]
- politics [1]
- running [1]
- wheatley [3]
tolkienery [7]
- fiction [1]
  - crossover [1]
  - sauron [1]
torchwood [5]
- review [13]
travel [73]
- commuting [2]
- work related [34]
traveller [6]
tv [29]
- blakes seven [1]
- buffy [1]
- firefly [2]
- sapphire and steel [1]
urban dead [5]
web stuff [1]
wierd spam [2]
world war z [1]
- fiction [1]
  - crossover [1]
writing [2]

Page Summary

Active Entries

1: Suprised

Style Credit

Base style: Transmogrified by Yvonne
Theme: Sleeping Warrior by dancing_serpent

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Top of page

Free Bread

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

Profile

February 2026

Tags

Page Summary

Active Entries

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags