MR PENDLE: I won’t line the pockets of these fat-cat footballers

Mr Pendle has seen seven such commercials in recent weeks - and there are no doubt one or two more he has missed.

You have “Let Your Love Flow” (Bellamy Brothers), “More Than A Feeling” (Boston), “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” (Bachman Turner Overdrive), “Listen to the Music (Doobie Brothers), “Give A Little Bit” (Supertramp), “Baker Street” (Gerry Rafferty) and the latest, “Let’s Stick Together” (Roxy Music), all used to plug certain products.

But how many records from the present day feature in the same way?

Perhaps it’s true what they say - they just don’t write songs like that any more.

AND while on the subject of advertising, Mr Pendle was shocked to discover that the footballer Wayne Rooney is, - or perhaps that should now be was, following the decision to show him the red card and dispense with his services - paid £600,000 a year by Coca-Cola to promote its products.

And he is even more mystified why people buy a certain item because a TV celebrity or sports star endorses it.

Now call Mr Pendle cynical if you wish, but if he were presented with two identical cans of a soft drink, one bearing the name of a show business or sports personality and the other not, he would deliberately opt for the latter 11 times out of 10.

For not only is the person endorsing the product being paid far more than the people who have made it - as can be seen by Rooney’s “fee” above - there is no guarantee that just because they say a product is good, they actually use it themselves.

They are simply there to push the product to line their own already bulging pockets - and the manufacturers know that there are an awful lot of dunderheads out there who will part with their money without a second thought once they have seen their idols telling them a product is the best in its field.

CONGRATULATIONS to the team which was responsible for yet more success for Colne in this year’s North West in Bloom competition.

Anyone who has walked around the town centre in recent weeks cannot have failed to spot the wonderful floral displays bringing a touch of colour to the streets - and one person went so far as to say that they looked much better than the ones which won the town the same award 12 months ago.

Indeed, the displays have been colourful - it would have taken another town to produce something akin to a Chelsea Flower Show exhibit to beat Colne.

And what a fitting tribute the award is to Derek Gascoigne, a team member who died recently.

So Mr Pendle joins all the others who have praised the Colne in Bloom team for its efforts - and let’s hope the success can be repeated again in 2011.