NEWS FROM SODA STREAM

GET BUSY WITH THE FIZZY!
80’s favourite, “SodaStream” makes a comeback

Back in the days of fluorescent odd-socks, cycling shorts, stonewashed denim, Bros and Rainbow Brite, a fizzy drinks-making machine took the nation by storm……
If you remember SodaStream, you were either one of the lucky kids who had one – or the one who didn’t and dreamed of your very own fizzy-drink factory.

Comedian Tommy Cooper had appeared in SodaStream’s ads in the 1970s, showing you could make fizzy drinks ‘Just like that’. A decade later, almost everyone seemed to be getting 'busy with the fizzy.' and every kid was begging their parents for their very own soda maker.

Well, now Sodastream is back, to give a whole new generation of fans the chance to ‘get busy with the fizzy’ and make their own soda in a range – or combination – of different flavours.

An exclusive SodaStream Pop-up Shop will open in Central London in mid-December selling limited-edition products. SodaStream is priced at £59.98 for the soda making unit, with flavours and gas canisters starting from £2.99. You can also buy SodaStream via sodastream.co.uk and selected stores (listed on the website).

The 80s favourite has had a sleek makeover and is available in a range of designs and colours, including chrome, red and white; whilst flavours are now all low-sugar or no-sugar and flavours include Cola, Lemonade, Tonic and vitamin-rich ‘Energy’.

Follow SodaStream on Twitter @sodastreamuk.

Mark Wyatt, the man behind bringing SodaStream back to the UK, says “We hope the nation will enjoy getting busy with the fizzy all over again.”

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More information:
Frank PR - 020 7693 6999 / getbusywiththefizzy@frankpr.it


SODASTREAM FACTS

History:
• The ‘home carbonation’ system that preceded SodaStream was invented in 1903, by Guy Gilbey of London Gin Distillers

• He sold the machine, which added sparkle to tap water via a pressurised carbon dioxide cylinder, to Britain’s wealthy households

• They were seen as so fashionable by the upper class that even the Royal Household had one!

• In the Twenties, flavour concentrates were introduced, such as Cherry Ciderette and Sasparilla and its popularity really took off

• The following decade the firm launched its Vantas model, also known as 'The Penny Monster', which was sold to shopkeepers to make drinks for their customers.

• SodaStream became a cult of the 1970s and 80s. Its popularity later spread to other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Germany

• Milkstream was a variation on the SodaStream for making milkshakes, created by the same company. The ingredients (milk, ice cream and Crusha syrup) were mixed in a tall glass and inserted into the machine, so that the wand extended into the glass to froth up the shake

• Milkmen were even recruited to sell products door-to-door!

• Lenny Henry appeared in ads to promote a new flavour range in the 1990s

• SodaStream is now owned by Israeli-based company, Soda Club, which offers a variety of more healthy soft drink flavours (such as diet drinks) alongside original syrup flavours


How it works:
• Just fill the carbonating bottle

• Screw the bottle into the drinksmaker

• Press the button until you get the famous SodaStream buzz (3-5 times depending on how fizzy you like it)

• Add your flavour concentrate

• With no batteries or electricity, the new SodaStream is a highly energy-efficient small appliance. The power supply comes from Alco2Jet Cylinders which are refillable

• Did you know that every one litre bottle of SodaStream you make saves three aluminium cans? That means that over 3 years, a family of four could slash their soft-drink-related packaging usage by over 90%


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NEWS FROM DRINKAWARE

BRITS WILL GUZZLE AT LEAST 602 MILLION UNITS OF ALCOHOL IN DECEMBER

Drinkaware launches nationwide review of festive drinking habits

At least 602 million units of alcohol will be consumed at festive celebrations in December according to new research launched today (10th December) by alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware*. The equivalent of 265 million pints, 602 million shots of vodka or 286 million glasses of mulled wine will be guzzled on Christmas Day and work Christmas parties, with nearly half (47%) predicting they will drink more than the recommended daily unit guidelines.**

To determine the extent of British festive drinking, Drinkaware is today unveiling a live examination of the nation’s drinking habits. A seven square metre screen in Covent Garden in central London will link to a festive version of the charity’s unit calculator on the Drinkaware website*** available at www.drinkaware.co.uk, allowing people to enter what they’ve had to drink in the last 24 hours, compare their drinking to the rest of the nation and see how their calorie intake from alcohol fares against other festive food treats. Similar events in Glasgow, Leeds and Birmingham will make it easy for people across the country to take part in what is believed to be the largest-scale interactive assessment of the nation’s drinking ever undertaken.

According to Drinkaware research, one in seven GB adults (14%) drink more than they mean to over Christmas while one in six (16%) say December is the one month of the year they can drink and not feel guilty. More than one in three Brits (36%) will go to three or more festive-related events and more than half (53%) say they will drink alcohol at most or all festive parties they attend. More men are expected to drink over their unit guidelines during the festive season (54%) than women (41%).

Chris Sorek, Chief Executive of Drinkaware, says: “For many people, December and the festive season is a time for getting together with loved ones and celebrating over a drink or two, or even more! It might feel like party time, but it’s still really important to keep track of how much you’re drinking - the long term effects of drinking to excess can last for much longer than Christmas.

“Although it seems an enormous amount, it’s likely that 602 million units is actually an underestimate of how much alcohol we’ll slug over the festive season. Conducting an experiment to find out what Britain is drinking this Christmas will encourage people to think about how much they’ve had to drink over the last 24 hours and help to educate them about units at the same time.”

Information gathered from the live screen in Covent Garden and other events across the country will be captured on the Drinkaware website with a rolling average for each day. The survey will run for a month, the screen in Covent Garden will be live for one week while Glasgow, Leeds and Birmingham activity will run for five days. Results of the Drinkaware interactive survey will be reported in early 2010.

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For further information, including interviews with spokespeople, please contact:

020 7693 6999/07890329191, drinkaware@frankpr.it

Drinkaware – 020 7307 7465 or 07827 971744, smccann@drinkaware.co.uk

Notes to Editors:
*Unit equivalents calculated by multiplying the average number of units consumed at festive occasions in December by the average number of occasions attended and extrapolated to the wider population of adults of drinking age. ICM interviewed a random sample of 2010 adults aged 18+ in GB from its online panel between 27th-29th November 2009. Surveys were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. Further information at www.icmresearch.co.uk
**1 pint of 4% beer = 2.27 units; 1x175ml glass of mulled wine (12%)= 2.1 units; 1x25ml shot of vodka (40%)= 1 unit.

Drinkaware advises men to stay within the recommended guidelines of 3-4 units of alcohol per day (equivalent of a pint and a half of lager) and women to stay within 2-3 units per day (equivalent of a 175ml glass of wine).

***The unit calculator will be a focal point of the Drinkaware home page ‘takeover’ for December and will also be placed as an MPU on third party-sites such as MSN and Yahoo throughout the month. (An MPU, otherwise known as a multi-purpose unit is a square online advert usually found embedded in a web page in a fixed placement. Called ‘multiple purpose’ as it is a flexible shaped blank ‘canvas’ in which you can serve flat or more interactive content as desired. See also Rich Media, Universal Advertising Package).

• Drinkaware provides consumers with information to make informed decisions about the effects of alcohol on their lives and lifestyles. Our public education programmes, grants, expert information, and resources help create awareness and effect positive change. An independent charity established in 2007, Drinkaware works alongside the medical profession, the alcohol industry and government to achieve its goals. For further information visit www.drinkaware.co.uk

NEWS FROM PREMIER INN

WHITBREAD TARGETS 26% REDUCTION IN CO2 EMISSIONS BY 2020 AS IT GAINS CARBON TRUST STANDARD

– Company reports saving of 8,562 tonnes of CO2 against business as usual
– Chief Executive launches ‘Good Together’ sustainability strategy

Whitbread, the UK’s leading hotel and restaurant group, has today (7 December) announced plans to reduce its carbon emissions by 26% by 2020.

The move, which comes as international leaders push for further action on tackling global emissions at Copenhagen, is the company's first statement of intent on carbon reduction and will form an important part of its ‘Good Together’ corporate sustainability strategy.

At the same time, Whitbread is reporting that from 2007 to 2009, the company improved its carbon efficiency by 4%, which is equivalent to saving 8,562 tonnes of CO2 – or taking 2,446 cars off the road.

CARBON TRUST STANDARD
In recognition of this achievement, Whitbread has today been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard. The Carbon Trust Standard is the world’s first award that requires organisations to measure, manage and reduce their carbon footprint and actually make real reductions year-on-year.

Alan Parker, CEO of Whitbread, said: “Whitbread has always put a high value on being a responsible business. Committing to this carbon reduction target is a statement of our determination to drive down emissions and ensure that we operate as efficiently and sustainably as possible. By taking the lead, we can help our customers to make a difference and show that action on the environment is most effective when we all work together.”

WHITBREAD'S GOOD TOGETHER SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY
Good Together is the umbrella for Whitbread's company-wide initiatives to drive sustainable performance and further deepen corporate responsibility: it aims to help Whitbread’s people, customers and supply chain partners make changes to how they work and how they 'eat, sleep and drink' Whitbread. When combined, these changes will make a significant difference to the company’s overall environmental and social footprint.

“Good Together is our way of uniting the power and potential of our people, customers and suppliers so that we can make a genuine difference,” added Alan Parker. “We are at the start of an exciting journey.”

Harry Morrison, General Manager Carbon Trust Standard, said: “Being certified with the Carbon Trust Standard is proof an organisation has taken genuine action to reduce their direct impact on climate change by cutting carbon emissions. We congratulate Whitbread on this achievement.

"Both businesses and consumers share a desire for one, credible way to prove an organisation has not only measured, but actually reduced their carbon emissions year-on-year without the use of offsetting. The Carbon Trust Standard provides this credibility and we encourage more organisations to follow Whitbread in making this commitment."

Good Together will focus on seven themes, setting targets for achievement and behavioural change in each. These themes are: environment, employee engagement, sourcing of products and services, standards and performance measurement, customer engagement, health and community.

TARGETS
In addition to today’s pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by 26% by 2020, Whitbread has also confirmed the following initial targets:

• Achieve 80% of waste diverted from landfill from Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants sites by February 2012
• 100% of all Costa Coffee production to be Rainforest Alliance certified by June 2010
• Launch purpose built ‘green hotel and restaurant’ at Burgess Hill, West Sussex (to open in Autumn 2010)
• Achieve 3,000 qualifications from Whitbread Hotels & Restaurant Apprenticeship scheme. 400 Costa learners trained by the end of 2011
• Raise £1 million for WaterAid
• Enable 15,000 children to be educated as part of the Costa Foundation

More Good Together targets and actions will be confirmed and announced in due course. A special ‘Good Together Week’ (w/c 11 January 2010) will bring Whitbread people together for the first time to focus on how everyone can be involved to make a difference. Involving customers will also become a core component of the Good Together strategy with Whitbread aiming to help its customers play an active part in achieving sustainability targets. Whitbread will use its team and customer surveys to track the impact of Good Together and help to shape future action.

Whitbread operates more than 580 Premier Inn hotels across the UK with in excess of 40,000 rooms and 375 Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Taybarns restaurants.

Costa is part of Whitbread and is the largest and fastest growing Coffee Shop business in the UK, and second largest globally with a total of some 1,500 stores.

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For further media information, contact:
Camargue, tel 020 7636 7366
E-mail: pbrowne@camarguepr.com / bcopithorne@camarguepr.com / gbuck@camarguepr.com

Notes to editors:

View the www.whitbread.co.uk website for its 2008/09 environment report


About Whitbread:

Whitbread PLC is the UK’s largest hotel and restaurant group operating market-leading businesses in the budget hotels and restaurant sectors. Its well-loved brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Taybarns and Costa Coffee.

Whitbread PLC employs over 33,000 people and serves 9 million customers every month in its 1,800 outlets across the UK.

In the financial year ended 27th August 2009, Whitbread PLC reported a 3.1% increase in Group Revenue to £703.3 million and Underlying Profit before tax of £118.2 million down 2.7%.

Whitbread PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index.

NEWS FROM QUALITY STREET

ALEXANDRA BURKE BRINGS MUSICAL FESTIVE CHEER TO LONDON
Crowds set to gather for Quality Street Caroleoke

The countdown to Christmas kicks off on Tuesday 1st December with a magic moment of Alexandra Burke and swarms of Londoners singing along to top Christmas hits by Tower Bridge on Southbank.

The Quality Street Christmas sing-a-long looks set to fill the banks of the River Thames with tuneful renditions of Christmas classics including Silent Night, The X Factor star’s own No.1 hit ‘Hallelujah’ and of course the Quality Street favourite, ‘Magic Moments’.

From 11am passers-by will be treated to several hours of the nation’s favourite songstress in a winter wonderland complete with Christmas trees, snow and a church choir.

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For further information and images, please contact Frank PR on 0207 693 6999 or qualitystreet@frankpr.it

NEWS FROM DRENCH

Following classified ads placed in The Stage, The Sun and The Metro directing hopefuls to cleverhamsters.com, drench, the spring water brand, was inundated with applications from talented hamsters wanting to audition for a starring role in their new TV advert.

These hamsters were spotted outside London’s Jazz Café queuing up to show off their musical skills. The final band - ‘The Clever Hamsters’ – will be demonstrating their jazz talents in the new drench advert which will be aired on TV in December.

NEWS FROM INNOCENT DRINKS

Grandma, we want to be Number One again!

innocent big knit choir launch Christmas charity single

Having been out of the limelight for almost 30 years, former primary school popstars have reformed as the innocent big knit choir as they today launch their all-new version of ‘There’s No One Quite Like Grandma’. Six weeks after announcing their comeback, the 1980 Catholic school choir are taking on the big guns this year in a bid to become Christmas number one with their charity single in aid of the 2009 innocent big knit campaign.

14 of the original choir members who now include an architect, an HR consultant and a mortgage advisor will go head-to-head with big names such as Robbie Williams, George Michael and the much anticipated 2009 x-factor winner. The 2009 version of the 1980 hit record, which originally knocked music legend John Lennon off the number one spot, is now available on iTunes with all profits from the single* donated to innocent’s big knit charity - Age Concern and Help the Aged.

Every year, the innocent big knit sees members of the public hand-knit woollen hats for innocent Smoothies and Squeezies, and woollen warmers for innocent Veg Pots. For every woolly product sold in Sainsbury’s stores, innocent and Sainsbury’s give 35p to Age Concern and Help the Aged. Along with proceeds donated from the woolly hats, the charity single aims to raise over £250,000 supporting healthy eating and living projects for older people this winter.

The innocent big knit campaign has also attracted star backing including actress June Whitfield who has a cameo in the video and legendary record producer Pete Waterman who hopes the choir will be hot on the heels of x-factor judge Simon Cowell this year.

Pete Waterman said, "Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without hearing ‘There’s No One Quite Like Grandma’ and I’m thrilled the choir has reformed to bring this fun record to a new audience. The charity single celebrates Grandmas everywhere and we want people to dig deep to get this song to number one to raise as much money as possible for Age Concern and Help the Aged as part of innocent’s big knit 2009. It would also be great if it gave my old mate Simon Cowell’s X-Factor single a run for its money in the Christmas chart stakes."

innocent founder Richard Reed said, "We’re really excited to be going up against so many big names in the music industry for Christmas number one. It would be a dream to see the innocent big knit choir take the top spot against the celebrities releasing singles this Christmas as well as marking the return of the charity Christmas number one record since Band Aid 20 in 2004."

‘There No One Quite Like Grandma’ is available for download now from iTunes at 79p. To view the music video and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, log onto www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknitchoir.

*A total of 42p from every download will go directly to Age Concern and Help the Aged



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For more information or to interview a member of the choir, please contact the innocent team at Frank on innocent@frankpr.it or 0207 693 6999



To find out more about The Big Knit Choir, log onto www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/bigknitchoir. Become a fan of The Big Knit Choir on Facebook and follow on Twitter @innocentdrinks (http://twitter.com/Innocentdrinks from your web browser) and if you are talking about The Big Knit Choir and want to link up with other choir fans just use #BIGKNITCHOIR in your Tweet.



Notes to editors:

· Innocent behatted smoothies, veg pots and kids squeezies are now on sale in Sainsbury’s nationwide.

· To date the Big Knit, has raised over £600,000 and the initiative sees members of the public and Age Concern volunteers knit woollen hats for innocent Smoothies and Squeezies, and woollen warmers for innocent Veg Pots. For every woolly product sold in Sainsbury’s stores, innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 35p to Age Concern and Help the Aged.

· There's No-one Quite Like Grandma was originally a number one hit single by Stockport-based primary school choir St. Winifred's School Choir in 1980. It was the Christmas number one single in the United Kingdom from 27 December 1980 - 3 January 1981. The song was written by Gordon Lorenz.

Age UK is the new force combining Age Concern and Help the Aged. We will be known by our new name from Spring 2010. The Age UK family includes Age Scotland, Age Cymru and Age NI.


· Choir members and their home towns include:

Lisa Hughes, from Stockport
Eileen Brown, from Northwood
Nicola Williams, from Stockport
Catherine Bailey, from Bolton
Bernadette Egan, from Dublin
Tara Daynes, from Camden
Dominic Blythe, from Huddersfield
Helen White, from Stockport
Nicola Hulme, from Stockport
Dionne Birtles, from Stockport
Carole Allen, from Nottingham
Jo O’Driscoll, from Cheshire
Carolyn O’Driscoll, from Cheshire
Katie O’Driscoll, from Cheshire


The Big Knit Fact File:

· It’s a sad fact that in the UK, 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 are malnourished. So when it’s nippy outside, it’s even more important for older people to look after themselves and make sure their bodies are in tip top shape.

· For every behatted smoothie, veg pot or squeezies sold in Sainsbury’s stores, innocent and Sainsbury’s will give 35p to Age Concern and Help the Aged.

· The monies raised will be used to support healthy eating and healthy living projects for older people. These include advice centres offering information on healthy eating as well as cooking clubs and get-togethers where older people can sit down and enjoy a meal in each other’s company.

· Innocent smoothies retail at £1.89, veg pots at £3.59 and kids’ squeezies at £1.99.

NEWS FROM BEATBULLYING

VIRTUAL VIOLENCE OFFENDERS REVEALED

Beatbullying names and shames websites in landmark report on cyberbullying

November 16, 2009 – LEADING bullying prevention charity, Beatbullying today announces the true extent of cyberbullying among young people in the UK by publishing its definitive report, ‘Virtual Violence: Protecting Children from Cyberbullying’ . In particular, the report highlights the number of extreme cases where a young person is persistently and systematically cyberbullied, even receiving death threats online.

To launch Anti-Bullying Week (16-21 Nov) – whose theme this year is staying safe in cyberspace - Beatbullying is also revealing the websites where cyberbullying is most prevalent. Almost one in three (30%) of 11 to 16-year-olds who have been cyberbullied had experienced the problem on Bebo, earning the social networking site the nickname ‘Bullybo’ among many young people. A further 44.6% have witnessed bullying on the site.

MSN instant messenger is also exposed as 57.9% of cyberbullied young people said they have been bullied using the service. Further offenders are social networking sites Facebook (11.3%) and MySpace (10.3%), plus web builder Piczo (16.3%) where, in some cases, fake accounts and hate sites have been created. You Tube (15.5%) also suffered as footage of bullying incidents can be proliferated on the video sharing site.

In response to findings that 69% of young people who have been cyberbullied would take advice from their peers online, Beatbullying launched the world’s first peer mentoring social networking site CyberMentors (cybermentors.org.uk) in March 2009. Now children and young people concerned about any form of bullying can seek support and advice at a purpose-built site. Since its launch over 214,000 young people have accessed help from one of 1,900 trained CyberMentors, with at least 147,000 mentoring conversations taking place.
Beatbullying has previously shown that one in three young people have been a victim of cyberbullying, defined as where an individual is deliberately targeted, threatened or humiliated by an individual or group through the use of mobile phones or the internet.

The charity’s definitive report now reveals that as many as 340,000 – or 1 in 13 – children and teenagers in the UK (8.2%) are subject to persistent bullying via digital technology day in and day out, over a period of many months.
Beatbullying’s research of 11-18 year-olds also found that:
• 61.2% have witnessed some form of cyberbullying
• Seven out of ten (69.3%) knew the person who was cyberbullying them
• Almost a third (31.3%) of cyberbullying incidents began offline
• Two-thirds (61%) have seen or heard of fake profiles, hate sites or happy slapping material
• One in five (20.8%) have seen hate sites or groups set up to bully someone online
• Nearly one quarter (24.5%) have been sent a video clip or image of someone being bullied
• Girls are most likely to be cyberbullied, as well as cyberbully; 23.8% of girls have received an upsetting or offensive phone call compared to 12.2% of boys
Emma –Jane Cross, chief executive of Beatbullying, says: “We know the consequences of cyberbullying are just as traumatic as those of face-to-face bullying; in the past year alone, we’ve witnessed tragic suicides resulting from relentless online hate campaigns.

“Suicide is an extreme manifestation, but research already underway shows us that increased isolation, poor educational attainment and self-destructive behaviour all readily follow cyberbullying.

“We must all act together, and fast. Beatbullying’s CyberMentors empowers young people to help their peers deal with of all forms of bullying and with over 190,000 children seeking help in the first 9 months, it’s clear there is a real demand and need for this. It is imperative that CyberMentors receives the necessary funding to develop beyond a pilot project, and so help even more young people affected by bullying.

“Today I also urge social networking sites, internet service providers and mobile phone companies to take measures to identify and remove offensive material, making cyberbullying much more difficult for the perpetrators.

“The Government, schools, parents and charities will all play their role in overcoming cyberbullying; after all, it is a clear extension of the bullying we have seen in schools and communities for a very long time which is why Beatbullying’s programmes, like CyberMentors, address the root of the problem. If the culture can be changed to one where bullying is unacceptable, there will be no bullying on or off-line.”

The report also highlights the threat of cyberbullying to vulnerable groups of children:

• Pupils with Special Educational Needs are 16% more likely to be persistently cyber bullied over a prolonged period of time

• Pupils receiving Free School Meals are 13% more likely to be persistently cyber bullied over a prolonged period of time

• White non-British ethnic background all reported a higher incidence of this intense form of cyberbullying

Of CyberMentors’ regular users, 13.78% receive school meals and 5.74% have special educational needs. There are 40 adult volunteer counsellors on hand to help the young CyberMentors deal with severe issues if required.

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For more information visit: cybermentors.org.uk | beatbullying.org | 0845 338 5073
Or contact:
Frank PR –|0207 693 6995
Beatbullying -| 0781 400 4963

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Beatbullying

Beatbullying is the UK’s leading bullying prevention charity. Founded in 1999, Beatbullying empowers young people to lead anti-bullying campaigns in their schools and local communities, and builds the capacity of local communities to sustain the work. Beatbullying has directly and indirectly worked with 700,000+ young people over the last seven years, assisting and supporting young people that are being bullied, re-educating and changing the behaviour of young people that bully and preventing bullying in schools and communities across the UK.
About CyberMentors

Cybermentors.org.uk is a safe, social networking site providing information and support for young people being bullied or cyber bullied. Young people, aged 11-25, are trained as CyberMentors, in schools and online, so that they can offer support to their peers. Encapsulated by cutting edge technology, it is a safe website where young people can turn to other young people for help and advice. CyberMentors are also supported by trained counsellors, available online if needed. CyberMentors is a Beatbullying project.

Virtual Violence: Protecting Children From Cyberbullying
Beatbullying delivered a comprehensive 32-question survey into secondary schools in several areas across England. Beatbullying worked directly with 2,094 young people, aged 11-18, who all responded to a questionnaire.