Jack White's Coke promo gets single TV airing

Coca-Cola is to show a promotional short film featuring the song White Stripes front man Jack White controversially wrote for the brand, once only in the UK on Channel 4's Album Chart Show in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The 100-second ad, called What Goes Around, featuring White's song Love is the Truth, will air at 1.55am on Channel 4 on Sunday morning.

White attracted criticism when it emerged he was writing a song for Coke late last year, with Noel Gallagher berating him for selling out in an interview in the NME.

However, in February Oasis agreed a deal with AT&T for the band's track All Around the World to be used in a US advertising campaign.

White is said to have a fascination with Coke, which compelled him to write 100, 10-second songs about the brand when he was a teenager. He is also known for only ever wearing red, white or black clothes.

He wrote Love is the Truth as an original song after being presented with the What Goes Around promo, created by Mother London, and has said he would never let his music be used for any other brand other than Coca-Cola.

A spokeswoman for the soft drinks giant confirmed it had no plans to air the 100-second ad more than once in the UK.

However, Coke GB is making the ad available for viewing for a limited time at coca-cola.co.uk/whatgoesaround.

The ad tells a tale suggesting that when you perform a random act of kindness, it will always come back to you.

In the film, a young girl is dismayed when she loses her pet bird. Despite her grief she randomly helps a stranger. This act of kindness is then transferred onto someone else, and in turn someone else again. This continues until coming full circle back to the girl, who is rewarded by the return of her bird.

It is understood Coca-Cola has aired a version of the ad just once globally - a standard 30-second cutdown of the film in Australia during an MTV awards show. A grainy pirate recording of the shortened version has been circulating on the internet.

The film carries the strapline "Coke Side of Life" but is part of the company's new global push. However, the main global brand campaign kicks-off in the UK at the end of this summer so as not to conflict with World Cup advertising.

Coke plans to launch its World Cup campaign in the UK in mid-May.

Vacuum cleaner whiz Dyson to branch out

Why does the vacuum cleaning innovator Dyson have 350 engineers on staff?

The company won't say but they all aren't working on the vacuums, said Andy Samways, an engineer at the British company in an impromptu meeting at The Cool Products Expo at Stanford University. All Samways would say is that the company is looking at different types of inventions and products.

In the past few years, Dyson has become a worldwide brand with its cyclone vacuum cleaner. Founder and inventor James Dyson wasn't happy with his home vacuum cleaner, which lost power as the bag filled up. One day, he saw an industrial wood chipper, which operated on a cyclone principle: the wood chips got sucked into a whirling cylinder and then sank down because wood is heavier than air. Because they sink, the wood chips don't impede airflow.

"It is the same principle as a centrifuge," Samways said. Dyson then built 5,000 prototypes before coming up with his first vacuum, the Dyson Cyclone, in 1993. It was a big hit in Europe.

Since then, the company has adapted its basic vacuum for different markets. In Japan, for instance, the company makes a small one that looks like a ball with a telescopic handle. It takes up less space. The Japanese version also does not come with an on-off switch that you step on.

"They don't turn things on with their feet in Japan," Samways said. This model of the vacuum also contains a more efficient electric motor than earlier versions, he said.

The vacuum wasn't the first product out of Dyson the person. Before getting into vacuums, he designed a Sea Truck, a boat for transporting cargo, and the Ball Barrow, a wheelbarrow with a ball for the front wheel. The ball is also now incorporated into the vacuums.