If in doubt resort to smut!

From Jules and Sandy, through Are You Being Served to Julian Clary, who famously liked a warm hand on his entrance, there’s nothing we Brits like more than a smutty innuendo.  It probably goes back to the very earliest days of Music Hall.

We’re also a bit of a fan of the underdog or the awkward geek.  Not for us the All American Football Hero and the Homecoming Queen.  So it seems like the peeps over at Comic Relief should be onto a winner with The Inbetweeners Rude Road Trip.

In simple terms it’s four guys in a car trying to visit 50 places with rude place names in 50 hours.  Naturally it’s being filmed and the end result will be available to download from iTunes for £1.89.  This is the video trailer:

What’s good about this project is that it engages with the social media generation.  There’s a chance to ‘join in’ – at the time of writing over 5,000 people had put comments and suggestions for Britain’s rudest place names on their Facebook page.

But not only have they got Facebook going they’ve also got the Twitterati enthused.  Check out #rudetrip. Plus they’re keeping followers up to date by posting pics as they go – here’s an example (although not suitable for lovers of House Elves).

So that’s: 

1. Great celebs for the target audience (tick)
2. Interactivity on Facebook AND Twitter (tick)
3. Keeping people engaged & making them comeback (tick)
4. Raising money….ahhh, we don’t know yet

My general feeling is that social media doesn’t deliver when it comes to fundraising.  Just look at the disaster of Last Tweet and Testament.  In that case around 70% of the US$1m fundraising target came from one donor.

This is different.  Firstly there’s the video to download.  At less than the price of a Starbucks Latte I can see that doing well – it’s a pocket money price. Given the audience that seems like a good price point AND you get something in return.  I have to confess to being a little surprised that when I went to the donation page the amount had been filled in with a suggested £40.  Call me a cheapskate but that seemed a little high.  Since I’m not a fundraiser I’ll just assume that Comic Relief know what they’re doing. [Since writing this the suggested donation amount has changed to £10]

All in all, if they got no press coverage and didn’t transmit something on telly, I’d be amazed if this project didn’t do well (probably the kiss of death – a bit like Richard predicting who’s going to win on Pointless [see my blog on Guardian Voluntary Sector Network to understand that]).  The point I’m making here is that this would work for any charity, not just the big rollercoaster that is Comic Relief.  It’s the creativity behind the idea and the clever use of social media that makes this so strong.