Last night’s food&drink towers media party at Theodore Bullfrog in London was, for me at least, a refreshing departure from the uncompromising bombardment of sometimes irrelevant PR.
The idea is that a small group of companies come together to display their wares to an invited audience of journalists. To the delight of many of my colleagues at the event, the absence of any obvious PR companies was refreshing, and the token handouts didn’t detract from our sense of relief.
It was good to actually meet the people who run these companies, and hear from the horses’ mouths about the products they’re producing. There’s a sense of passion and enthusiasm you often don’t get when you filter your business concept via an agency.
RDA Organic – a recent finalist for Best New Functional Drink at the Beverage Innovation Awards in Moscow – showed off a new product that contains Evesse apples, and I was more than happy to taste Antony Worrall Thompson’s croutons and Wyke Farms’ cheese (which, as it happens, tasted sublime washed down by a fantastic Sauvignon from wineSight).
I think Helen Lewis, who runs food&drink towers, should be congratulated for being creative and forward-thinking. This event is what public relations should be about: the client, not the agency representing them.
Shaun Weston 