Approximately 30%* of the industry is at Worthy Farm (not jealous at all) but, if you’re left holding the fort, join me for my first ever Stunt Watch and a round-up of ideas worthy of attention.

Kopparberg's bottle-opening grills

Festival season for PRs starts in winter, with sponsors and non-sponsors all competing to be heard. It’s getting harder and harder to get festival pitches to stand out, even if you forget to change ‘willies’ back to ‘wellies’ in your email after an autocorrect fail, it’ll likely go unnoticed.

But, Kopparberg made the bill this week with its bottle-opening grills (gold accessories for teeth). Created in partnership with Tuff Tooth, the limited edition launch follows research that one in five people have risked their teeth to crack open a cold one. This isn’t Kopparberg’s first festival-themed rodeo, remember the ‘ice bucket hat’ from a couple years ago? Genius.

Yes, grills aren’t new, but they’re definitely having a moment. And Heinz may have got there first with the sachet-opening grills. But does that matter? Kopparberg timed it just right, it solves an actual problem, and neatly ties back to the product. Is there room for another “limited edition grills designed to help you to open things” launch? Probably not, but this one works.

M&S’ strawberry and cream sandwich

From festival accessories to Centre Court, M&S has dropped a strawberries and cream sandwich and it has gone everywhere. Inspired by Japanese sweet sandos which have been popping off on TikTok, the dessert sandwich is packed with Wimbledon-worthy strawberries and lightly whipped cream.

We’re often challenged to come up with product-first ideas that will get attention, and arguably, not all brands could pull this off, because well, it’s not just any dessert sandwich, but M&S have hit the sweet spot here. Delicious simplicity at its finest.

Literally, just as I was writing this, Subway went live with its strawberry and cream sub. But which one’s better? This calls for a taste test.

Cadbury’s colour-changing choc

Another sweet idea: Cadbury and its colour-changing chocolate.

I used to be firmly in the room-temperature chocolate camp, but I’ve been experimenting with chilled chocolate of late, and I don’t hate it. Some people feel very strongly about this, and Cadbury has hit that tension on the head with its latest launch.

The new range, including an iced latte flavour I now need to try, uses thermochromic packaging to tell you when your chocolate is at what they call the optimum temperature, while revealing some summery designs.

Although instead of sparking a proper room temp vs fridge debate, what seems to have riled people is that the chocolate itself doesn’t change colour. I mean, that would’ve been a great story, but not even Wonka could’ve pulled that off, right?

Just Eat to the rescue

And finally, last on the list, but arguably the most talked about, is the Just Eat delivery person lobbing bottles of water at stranded train passengers.

I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a setup (and if it was, fair play for getting it through legal), but I couldn’t ignore it. Does it count as a stunt? Maybe not. Does it have all the right ingredients for a successful stunt? Definitely. Solves a relatable problem. Tick. WTF factor. Tick. Human interest story. Tick. Shows the brand as the hero (and in the headline). Tick.

If you’re still with me, thanks for reading.

*guestimate stat based on a sample of one office