THIS AND THAT

I conducted a very brief interview with Jay Taylor (A first for this blog!) via Twitter (See below). Nothing but first class journalism on this blog! Remember you read it here first (unless you read his tweets, then you've probably already read it).

Interesting development in the Twitter-sphere: Jay Taylor is now following Gary Amers. I don't know if it means anything, but it seems strange that after all these months he would decide to finally follow a fellow member of The Churned.

More photos from Magic of the Movies, the show Gary Amers was in in Beirut, are available on the Croc Bisous FB page .

The tour of Snookered, the play that Michael Luxton is in, ends at The Nuffield Theatre in Southampton, with shows 3,4,and 5 April.

The Watch our Ads page  has returned to the Yeo Valley website (obviously due to the pressure caused by earlier posts on this blog). So there is a little bit more of The Churned on the site now, but still far from enough.

WHERE'S THE CHURNED?

As I mentioned earlier, Yeo Valley has renovated their website. This is fine, but The Churned has virtually disappeared from it! I've found a couple of very brief mentions, but no photos. I was able to get a Google preview of the "Meet The Churned" page, but when I tried to access the page itself I got a big 404! There is still a link on the website to the "Our TV ads" page. But the link also leads to 404.

They should put more of The Churned on their website, not less! Maybe I won't try Yeo Valley yogurt next time I'm in the UK.

SOMETHING NEW

When the Yeo Valley ad (which wasn't really the Yeo Valley ad) aired during the Brit Awards, something struck me as not being right. On closer inspection I found that a scene had been added to show the new look of Yeo Valley milk. Yeo Valley has also given a new look to its website. It's nice, but I can't find much about The Churned on it! ("I'm not happy.")

AND TWITTER GOES WILD!

When The Churned appeared during the Brit Awards, they caused quite a response on Twitter. But I think Yeo Valley may be just a little frustrated that fans of The Churned are not necessarily fans of yogurt.

I promise that next time I am in the UK (I have been there once, and do hope to return, so it is possible) I will try some Yeo Valley yogurt.

SURPRISE RETURN!

During the broadcast of the Brit Awards, the Yeo Valley ad with The Churned came on. (Good thing I had seen a tweet about it from Yeo Valley, or I wouldn't have watched). But it wasn't the Yeo Valley ad. It was the Yeo Valley ad being used in another ad. The important thing is that The Churned were back!

Here's a link to the ad.

THE CHURNED (FOREVER)

I can't watch many popular music videos. Generally, before they are half over, I am either bored or sick. So why can I watch "Forever" over and over, and like it more and more? Clearly, this is one of the great mysteries of the universe and can never be fully understood by a merely human brain, but I have to try. So here are some thoughts:

1. OK, let's state the obvious: these guys are hot! This is surely part of the appeal. But hot pop stars are pretty common, and physical attractiveness only goes so far.

2. It's fun. Too often in our popular culture fun is equated with brain-dead. This video is fun and intelligent.

3. It's serious. We are facing serious problems on this planet. Factory farming and genetically modified crops are not the solution. We have to work with nature. This is an important message.

4. A lot of people have contributed in the creation of The Churned, but the four actors who portray them deserve the credit for creating full characters out of what could easily have been cardboard cut-outs. These four fictional pop stars have more personality than most of the real ones. I think this is the main reason that the video stands up to repeated viewings.

I'VE BEEN CHURNED!

This blog is dedicated to The Churned, a fictional boy band that featured in an advertisement for Yeo Valley dairy products. I know it's ridiculous, but I have been deeply moved by this group; in short, I've been churned!

In this postmodern age, I see no reason to let the fictional nature of the group deter us from behaving as if the group were real. Hence this blog. [But, then again, perhaps this is not a real blog. Did you notice the semicolon above? People who blog about boy bands don't use semicolons. Very suspicious.]