We often make the point that our subject matter can give us promotional opportunities that other groups don't get, but how valuable was the good publicity that BN gained from our appearance on ITV's breakfast show, Daybreak in October 2011?
BN's Commercial Manager Andrew Welch and Youth Officer Daryl Jones were among a group of BN members who got a chance to get our message across. Unfortunately, they were largely hidden behind several boxes of breakfast cereal but as Andrew said: "may not be everybody's favourite programme but you can't argue with the fact that there were probably more than a million people watching."
The TV appearance came because BN was approached earlier this year by Golin Harris, the PR company who handle Unilever's (http://www.unilever.co.uk/) fabric softener brand Comfort Pure who teamed up with British Naturism to prove that being naked is good for your skin. They staged a photo-shoot in Central London, ran an internet poll and set up the TV appearance,with BN getting the services of Golin Harris (one of the country's top PR companies, who also handle publicity for McDonald's) absolutely free. That gave Andrew, Daryl and friends theopportunity to go on national television and, as we always should, make the point that of course naturism is good for you. It's good for your skin, it's good for positive body image.
Andrew did well to steer the discussion away from the usual 'Oh, they're all a bunch of weirdos'' line by pointing out that naturists aren't anti-clothes, we just feel that they aren't always essential. It was also great to see so many young people among the BN contingent. There's a real drive within BN at the moment to attract younger members and seeing so many enthusiastic young naturists on national television can only have done us enormous good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoPa3q2JMTI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bD0bqZ-dKCM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL