1. Survival essential
Making a shelter, finding food and attempting to escape are going to be high on your agenda -- so which brand will you find most useful in your attempt to tame the great outdoors?
A Hennessy Tent - the world's best. Great as a shelter at night and a cool place to hang out during the day.
2. Last taste of civilisation
The Island has a plentiful supply of nuts and fruit, not to mention a
healthy population of fish, so you will have plenty to eat. But which
one food brand are you really going to miss from your old life?
It would have to be a 'Gentlemen's Hamper' from Elizabeth Botham & Sons. A family-run craft bakery in the ancient port of Whitby started way back in 1865. All the contents are from original recipes and include biscuits, plum bread and cakes and also a pint of Timothy Taylor's Landlord Classic Yorkshire brewed Pale Ale and a pint of Black Sheep Ale. Plus wait for it! An Airfix model aircraft or classic car to build! I think I'd choose the Supermarine Spitfire - it seems to go well with the ginger cake.
3. Best reminder of home
Successful survivalists always claim that it is mental attitude which
sees them through. Belief that you will get back home is going to be
vital -- so which brand will sum up home best?
I am a country boy from Saffron Walden, 50 miles from London and 15 from Cambridge. It's rural England at its best and about as far as you can get from a desert island. There I'll have coconut trees, the endless white sand and the reef. In other words, the essence of the Pacific. And here? A medieval market town which is quintessentially English. So, what will I bring with me that will make the Essex countryside come alive - that will conjure up England? I think it will have to be a cricket bat, stumps, the whole works, and an unlimited supply of balls - it might take some time before I get the locals attuned to the rules and manage them to keep the balls on land rather than in the lagoon. Obviously, all this would be worth the effort when we have a crack team that could even demolish the West Indies. The bats would have to be hand-made by the Salix company, which has only been around since 1990 but specialises in hand-made blades - the best that you can find. The wood for these bats is grown in large plantations in wetland areas throughout Essex, so there's the reminder of home again.
4. Most welcome on-line brand
Eventually you manage to rig up your own connection to the internet using bits and pieces found on the beach but you have only one chance to log on to a website before it goes down - which online brand will you choose?
Everybody chooses the BBC don't they, so I think I would choose Google just to be different. It's a fantastic search engine and I'm sure that I could find absolutely all the advice that I would need to get food, light fires, build a boat and everything else - probably even some tips on how to captain a cricket team! In fact, I've just tapped in 'survival on a desert island' and found half a dozen survivalist sites that offer all the help I will ever need from rough and ready types like Ray Mears. Also, jolly useful, I have had recommended to me the Garmin e-Trex Personal Navigator now on sale for 40% off with the delivery anywhere from Amazon.com (I'd love to see their faces when they read the address "somewhere in the Pacific"). Although it sounds like a cooking oil, the e-Trex is actually a global positioning system which continuously tracks and uses up to 12 satellites, calculates current and average speed, time of sunrise and sunset, trip distance, and much more. I think for 65 pounds that's an absolute steal so I'll have one of those please.
5. Ultimate luxury
Self indulgence is hard to come by on a desert island, so what brand
would you be most excited to find washed up on the beach?
I not only saw the film Castaway but have just read an interview with Tom Hanks thanks to my Google search above! I can remember that Tom was mostly uncomfortable at night and bitten to death by insects. So, I think my luxury would have to be a good bed. I am one of those people that really needs my sleep and I would choose a double king size Hypnos mattress (with a huge mosquito net please). These are made by a family-owned and family-run company set deep in the heart of Buckinghamshire which has been producing traditional hand-crafted beds for over four generations. Simply the best you can get, and the Queen, bless her heart, has been resting her weary bones on one for years.
6. Transferable skills
You already work in the jungle of marketing so there are probably skills which you have acquired through your job which will come in handy -- or you may have other hidden talents. Which of your personal skills will help you to get to grips with life on a desert island?
I have loved the idea of desert islands since I was a kid when I read the whole pantheon of castaway and pirate stuff - Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe and all the rest. So, I know that I would love it on my island. But, one day I would be desperate to go home. Until then there might be a useful twist that I could say to the local chief, hand on heart, that I am a headhunter from England - perhaps that might get me elected to some kind of Island fraternity whereby you are not seen as food? Working in recruitment has a few skills/attributes that I think would come in very handy. Firstly, respect (I think that might go down well with the island's natives that I hear can be quite fierce) and secondly perseverance. Doing what I do for a living makes me a fairly good judge of character and I think I am the type that would pull off a successful escape one day.
Adrian Whitefoord is founding partner of Pemberton, and comments:
A Hennessy tent would certainly come close to the top of my desert island wish list. It's surprising how many of our island guests propose grandiose schemes which involve building tree-house estates, having requested a Swiss army knife as their only tool!
While they are still whittling away at bits of bamboo with that horses hoof blade, Jon would be snugly tucked up in his tent and tucking into the contents of his "Gentleman's Hamper". The only trouble is, the hamper sounds so good I am pretty sure I would have laid waste to its contents by about 1.15pm – day one. Perhaps Jon's self-control is of sterner stuff?
I cant help thinking that a Hennessy hammock would be a more suitable place to rest a weary head than a double king size Hypnos mattress. Even with the mosquito net in place I can guarantee Jon would have numerous visitations from all manor of blood sucking insects. Much better to be suspended a yard from the floor.
Jon is on to a winner as far as befriending the natives with a hearty game of cricket. The only snag is that, in a subtle variation of the conventional rules, and in accordance with the witch doctors regulations, the captain of the loosing team has to forfeit his head, which is shrunken and then becomes the new ball for the next match in the series. I would recommend Jon brushes up on his leg spin.
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