The Bottle of Britain

This weeks prompt on the Writers Island is Message in a Bottle. This week I'm doing something a little different!

The only message I ever get in a bottle is drink me! So after some thought and a couple of large ones, I decided to be a bit of a rebel and call my piece Message on a Bottle!

In September 2005 the Royal Air Force celebrated the 65th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. And to raise funds for the veterans of that most famous of all air battles, brewers Shepherd Neame started an advertising campaign called the Bottle of Britain and used images and slang expressions of the time. It proved so popular that it continues to this day with regular updated posters aimed at current events such as the Rugby World Cup.

Since 1990 ‘Sheps’ have produced Spitfire Bitter in the oldest brewery in the UK at Faversham in Kent. It’s proximity to the coast near Dover meant that many of the battles took place in the skies above the town, and still today, many of the residents are still there to retell their stories and recollections.

These adverts often sail pretty close to the wind, and although many of them have been referred to the Advertising Complaints Commission, most have made into the outside world.

I realise that many of the messages will go completely over the heads of many readers abroad, and for that I apologise. I hope you accept them in the spirit of which they were intended!