In an attempt to promote their latest home products, Philips will be handing out free sandwiches (which cannot be made using said products, FYI) tomorrow and Thursday morning for commuters who swing by The Merton, the Admiralty Centre, Wan Chai Computer Centre or Cambridge House.
If you’re into crust-less white bread with tongue fillings (no, we’re not even joking), nab one on your way to work.
The “healthy” breakfast in all its glory
If you want to save yourself the HKD5.5 you’d spend on the MTR, however, hop abroad the “Philips Breakfast Bus”, where you’ll be treated to live demonstrations of a “healthy”, “hassle-free” breakfast en route from Sai Wan to Quarry Bay, with plenty of stops in between.
Philips promises the Breakfast Bus will “get [people] to their work destinations on time”, but note that the appliance demonstrations take place before the journey begins, not during the commute. Coconauts who like to spend as little time as possible on public transport should, therefore, just grab a sarnie from the accompanying truck – which is going to be trailing the bus and handing out food at the above-mentioned stops.
Philips is promoting a Soy Milk and Soup Maker (HKD1,298), a Mini Blender (HKD498), and an Airfryer (HKD1,898), but you’ll only get to see what the first two can do, and you won’t get to taste anything from any of them.
On our trip – one of the strangest PR stunts we’ve endured in recent memory – the Philips chef magically transformed bottled water and soy beans into milk in a matter of seconds, which, we have to admit, is kind of cool – but perhaps just not cool enough to persuade us to do that every morning rather than grabbing a carton of Vitasoy from 7-Eleven.
The Mini Blender has a pretty sweet feature, too: a portable “On the Go” bottle for easy carriage, but the meanie Phillips chef wouldn’t let us anywhere near his smoothie.
The selling point of the Airfryer is that it uses “Rapid Air Technology” for a “healthier frying alternative” (80 percent less fat, chip fans!), but passengers on our bus were not able to witness the magic in action.
Having watched the chef meticulously chop up tomatoes, cucumber, ham and cheese to put on his bagel for “frying”, it transpired that the device could not be plugged in on the bus. Someone didn’t think this through at all!
Philips’ promo guru hard at work
We were slightly placated by the “freebie” fans…. until they were demanded back by the generous staff at the end of the ride. Whatever, it’s hardly fan weather anyway.
Although we were told we’d “enjoy a wholesome breakfast guaranteed to kick-start [our] day full of energy”, we ended up in Chai Wan with reaffirmed thoughts on sugary white bread.
The appliances are decent enough, we’re just not sure the Breakfast Bus is the best way to showcase them. That said, we wrote this.
