Brands fail to cut festival vibe

Farmer and festival father Michael Eavis always makes a valiant attempt to contain corporate branding at Glastonbury, so Greenpeace, Oxfam and WaterAid can grab the limelight and keep the true hippy hoe-down spirit alive for three days in June.

But, yet again, a motley bunch of brands did their best to impress the “kidz” with their hip, cool and happening credibility at this year’s festival, with varying results.

Among those successfully marauding through the mucky field of youth marketing were Jazz FM’s record label Hed Kandi. It pumped out chilled tunes in the new area The Glade with such “Jazz – Nice!” low-key, unobtrusive coolness that nobody noticed the Kandi-funsters were behind it. But what no chief executive? Next year, Richard Wheatly, The Diary expects to see you shaking your festival thang.

Digital music site Vitaminic UK also had the right idea – sending managing director Chris Cass out with 15,000 tent pegs (and Vitaminic branded packs) to help keep the kids warm and dry.

But oh dear, Orange. What was the turf and fibre-glass orange men idea all about? Proof that Hans Snook’s hippy-esque attitude has deeply affected Orange stand-designers, who obviously imbibe far more mind-altering substances than their target audience.

And what were Kodak thinking of? Two gigantic and terrifyingly sinister orange faces grinning madly at innocent passers-by, who were blasted by 1000BPM techno. It took the Kodak mental crew until Sunday to calm down enough to play a bit of reggae. Next year, chill out a little, boys.

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