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?
Oh God! I'm going to sound much more practical than I am, but here goes. Well, I was always a great fan of Tarzan and I would be very tempted to build a fantastic tree house. So, I would need something that cuts wood. A chainsaw and an unlimited supply of petrol would be good. If you are buying chain saws Stihl is the best so I'll go for that. Plus, it'll be hot during the day and maybe cold at night -- so it would be good for cutting firewood. Oh, and also for making a raft when I eventually get fed up and want to go home...
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?
Got to be a retailer here, one that delivers, and I'd say Waitrose. Pretty good all-round grub and I'd look forward to a speedboat delivery every week or so with some really nice goodies and also a fairly robust hamper every Christmas with a nice bottle of Bordeaux and late vintage Port, a very ripe Stilton -- and no turkey or socks.
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?
Best reminder of home would probably be the sound of my wife and children laughing. That would make me happy. To play that, I'd like to choose the new Apple iPod with a Bose SoundDock Digital Music System. Apart from the laughter I could load up a ton of really good music. How would I make this work? Solar panels... I have a sneaking feeling that one is going to drift on to the beach the day after I arrive. Along with that I'll take the new apple G5 with a video link so I'll be able to check home and have a natter now and again. I can hear my wife saying right now: "Aren't there any razors on that island?"
4. Most welcome online 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?
Well I've already been greedy and asked for the G5 so the internet will be a doddle. Got to be eBay hasn't it? You can buy almost anything and if that film 'Castaway' was anything to go by FedEx could deliver it as well -- wherever you are on the planet.
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?
Ultimate luxury would be to find my wife and kids washed ashore in a life-raft stacked full of things that would make life so bearable we'd never want to go home. Yes, it all sounds a bit 'Swiss Family Robinson' I know. But, I see my island as being more Walt Disney than Lord of the Flies. What I'd be most excited to find in the raft would be a very sexy Motorola 3G mobile phone -- they are the ultimate luxury item and I could record a very irritating voice mail greeting that says, "Sorry, I can't answer right now I'm probably sleeping, sunbathing or swimming!"
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?
Designers are all about making the best of something. So, I don't think I'd have any problem being optimistic and positive. I also need to be pretty resolute in my job when somebody says you have to design and deliver 150 stores throughout Europe it's no good sighing and pulling the duvet over your head. So being 'can do' about things is essential and I think that would come in very handy. I'd probably end up doing a weblog that was sponsored by a whole bunch of our clients and turn my idyll into a revenue stream of sorts. You know the kind of thing "here's a picture of me relaxing on the balcony of my tree house in the latest Hilfiger summer wear."
Adrian Whitefoord, founding partner of Pemberton and Whitefoord, comments:
Nigel clearly likes his creature comforts but also has his practical side. Some of his choices bend the rules a bit but it is difficult to fault his selection of gadgets.
Chainsaws are not items one would normally consider to be desirable in terms of their design aesthetic but somehow Stihl manage it. A great marriage of form and function. Short of having a tanker moored of the coast of the island I am not sure how we would deal with the "unlimited supply of petrol" I think a full tank is the best that could be offered so Nigel should probably be thinking bedsit rather than Balmoral when it comes to the tree house.
Waitrose have a good home delivery service (rated best online supermarket by Which? magazine) but I have just typed in the postcode of the island and the computer says they can only do air drops. Shouldn't cause too many problems but I would refrain from ordering eggs unless Nigel is fond of the scrambled variety.
With the amount of audio and computer hardware Nigel is taking to the island, I hope prophesy of the washed up solar panels comes to pass, otherwise the front grill of his G5 will only useful for grating coconuts.
The island's natives have strict immigration laws so I am not sure if the wife and kids will be allowed on the island, even for visits. The local witch doctor has a nasty habit of throwing shrunken heads at anyone who sets foot on the beach without his blessing, although he has been known to take bribes in the form of bottles of banana liquor.
Nigel's aptitude for problem solving will serve him well on the island and I think he should apply it to the challenge of becoming more self sufficient. If one of his airdrops is intercepted by a troop of baboons he will have to fend for himself or perish. Perhaps he could use the last remnants of his iPod's battery life to lure one of the islands wild pigs. Perhaps a ballad by Ronan Keating -- working on the principle that it takes a bore to catch a boar.
Q&A supplied by design consultancy Pemberton & Whitefoord.
Click for more information.