to wonder why the jeffing jeff you would ask people to knit pointless little hats for bottles?

[VaginaPuddleduck]

There's a link on MN to an innocent smoothie campaign.

Knit a tiny pointless hat for a bottle of Innocent smoothie and they will donate money to Age UK to keep old people warm.

Why can't they knit something useful that can be donated? I don't know what, but there must be something - knit a woolly square to be added to a blanket? knit a hat for a premature baby? knit a fake breast, even.

But a small knitted hat for a fruit based refreshment? No, no, no. Not in my name.

And flay me now if I am wrong.

An egg cost is used for keeping your second egg warm whilst you eat the first one.

cost? cosy obviously.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=innocent+smoothie+hats&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=685&tbm=isch&prmd=ivns&tbnid=lvbxPNKeDsi6nM:&imgrefurl=innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent_drinks/2007/11/index.html&docid=uJtyVyT8Wcy2_M&w=350&h=262&ei=_85OTrqLBcKq8AOxruSSDA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=397&vpy=167&dur=2411&hovh=194&hovw=260&tx=79&ty=98&page=6&tbnh=154&tbnw=205&start=93&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:93" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">This though is obscene. All that wool, all that effort , surely should be used to better effect non?

400,720 hats

Although I have to admit that this one made me laugh

So the toasts doesn't get damp whilst laying on a plate - you know when you put it on a plate when it's still warm and you get little condensation patches? It's to stop that.

I actually thought the hats were knitted by old people in day care centers etc. I imagined them sitting there knitting, and feeling good that they were doing it for Help The Aged. In the way only old people who don't consider themselves old can.

I saw the advertisement for those in a magazine. What the hell? What a waste of time, effort, money, resources. All those knitters could do something a lot more useful than make hats for smoothies. Wonder how they convinced the knitters to do that? Ok, maybe they could be used as egg cosies but I don't see the average smoothie-consumer as being someone that has a breakfast involving toast and soldiers, marmalade and the morning paper.

OOh Deemented you've taught me something! I have a tost rack which I have never used and yet I HATE it when my toast sweats!

ooh, I had my ear bent about this the other day. A women who is very into environmental stuff was telling me how terrible it is, what a waste of wool. Which is apparently very resource intensive (forget the phrase, but it takes a LOT of water to make woollen clothes - and obviously you have to have the sheep too, and they make a lot of methane, I gather).

but they have raised tons of money for help the aged. So it isn't a horrendous waste of everyone's time and money, is it?

Erm - from a knitting point of view - it's a really good way of getting beginner knitters to start and finish an article.
Yep, it's a fundraiser, yep, it's a gimmick, but watching Comic Relief it a real gimmick to me - all those hours of wasted TV when I could just read about it... all those celebs flying off to see how the money has been spent... etc.
You don't have to join in - but hats off (geddit?) to Innocent for targetting a not-so-funky charity - as another poster has said, it's hard to make old age appealing when people could be raising money for sweet babies or fluffy kittens.
Off to get my needles out now...

About as useful as fil's gold club hats. To be fair, I never saw him take the clubs out on the course wearing the hats.
Could they fit on an egg?

They should knit dish cloths instead. I love those and I can't knit/crochet anything.

Actually, I think they are environmentally freindly, as surely each hat needs only a small amount of wool (or suedo nylon "wool") - so you could use up the end of a ball, or unpick an existing garment. I actually feel like knitting one now. Not that I can knit...but this might prompt me to learn, and who knows where it might lead.

Older people love using up leftover scraps of wool to make them. Brownies enjoy using the opportunity to learn to knit with their grannies. Stitch and birch groups get very creative with funky designs. Knitting is a great way to exercise arthritic fingers.
All in all, its just a fun campaign which raises money for a cause that often struggles to engage with the public.
Isn't it the same as Sainsbury's flogging those pointless red noses. Or pudsy merchandise? It's fun and for a great cause. No harm to anyone

Bitch, not birch

yanbu. I saw the ad and assumed it was a joke, the I realised it wasn't .

yabu, people (children) buy them for the cute hats which can be used for dolls. More money is given to charity.

Tons of companies donate profits to charity without roping in people to make their free gifts.

Innocent could pay for their own hats, give some profits to Age UK plus give away a knitting pattern so people could knit hats for prem/stillborn babies and the effort and resources would actually create something useful.

Sorry, when I said stillborn babies, I met something along the lines of stuff for the charity linked to earlier.