Sweetapple is a charitable brand, creative consultancy and production company established by Elaine and Matthew Sweetapple.
Based in London, since 2002 Sweetapple has been responsible for creating and giving ideas to charities which have raised over £1,000,000 for the causes concerned. These have included Peeball, for the Prostate Cancer Charity (UK), CANSA (South Africa) and the Australian Prostate Cancer Foundation, 'Remember Me' for the road crash victim's charity, RoadPeace (UK), the ecological musical story, Rockford's Rock Opera, written with Steve Punt – which includes several charity partners including WWF, Buglife and Missing Persons – 'DogMob' for Battersea Dog's Home, and 'GiveSure' Charitable Insurance.
Although it remains a commercial marketing, production and PR consultancy, the organisation's charitable works have developed a wider profile, winning several UK national awards; these include the Institute of Public Relations "Outstanding Achievement Award" and PRWeek magazine's "Best Not for Profit" awards.
Peeball
Peeballs are biodegradable compacted-powder balls that can be collected, or placed in gentlemen's urinals and destroyed using the power of the urinary stream. Peeball is available in many retail outlets including the Mitchells & Butlers and Scottish & Newcastle pub chains, Virgin Megastores, River Island, Maplin and Ryman, and via the web. In the UK, Peeballs cost £1.00 with at least 30p of which going directly to the Prostate Cancer Charity.
Peeball was conceived as 'a new approach to charitable awareness and fund raising – an alternative to the worthy-but-dull badges and key rings that have become the mainstay of charity in retail'. It was created to engage and amuse but also to highlight issues that would never usually be discussed socially or in mainstream media. Peeball has used schoolboy humour to help communicate serious health and awareness messages. The game has been featured on national TV (on This Morning), in radio programmes (including Radio One's Mark and Lard 'playing' the game on air and a feature on the Steve Wright Show), newspapers, magazines and the local press. In addition, the Peeball on-line game has been played more than 26,000,000 times. As a result of its success in the UK – Peeball has been adopted for launch by several other national prostate cancer charities.
Over 500,000 Peeballs have been sold in the UK raising over £150,000 for The Prostate Cancer Charity
In July 2015 Peeball was launched in Australia by Chemist Warehouse store group and supported by the AFL Coaches Association.
Remember Me
The 'Remember Me' campaign for RoadPeace – the UK road accident victims charity – was launched on 31 August 2003. The 'Remember Me' Weeping Flower sign was created by Sweetapple and given to the charity mainly to provide a permanent memorial to lives lost or blighted through road crashes. It was also intended to provide a poignant warning to other road users regarding the everyday risks of road use.
Since its launch over 3,000 Remember Me signs have been placed on Britain's roads and the Weeping Flower image has been used to front various RoadPeace campaigns. These have included projecting the image onto City Hall in London and using it to highlight the connection between Safety Cameras and road deaths by Transport for London.
Rockford's Rock Opera
Rockford's Rock Opera is an ecological musical story created by Sweetapple with Steve Punt.
Rockford's Rock Opera audio visual resources and audiobook are used to teach about extinction, ecology and biodiversity. Recommended by many education portals including the BGCI, Woodland's Junior School and Teachernet, it from educational circles, with reviews in The Times, The Guardian and Primary Times and personal appearances on BBC Radio.
The musical introduces the Island of Infinity, home to the last single representative of every extinct animal and plant species. Key characters include the fictional Cocklebur Ick (named after the cocklebur seed – inspiration for the invention of Velcro), the Registrar, Dectopus and The Herculous. Also featured are non-fictional species such as the passenger pigeon, great auk, moa and thylacine.