The Riot Act – Our Monthly Newsletter

It’s been a pretty great start to the year for Riot and our clients, but special mention must go to Aardman who’ve been BAFTA nominated for their intergalactic adventure, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon. We’ll have everything crossed for the ceremony on Feb 2nd!

Read on for more exciting client news from the last month…

Grattis på årsdagen, Pippi  

That’s ‘Happy anniversary, Pippi’ to you! This year, we’re celebrating 75 years of the indomitable Pippi Longstocking. We kicked off by announcing details of Pippi of Today: a global collaboration between Save the Children and The Astrid Lindgren Company which will support refugee girls, giving voice to their experiences and holding Pippi up as an empowering role model for strength, courage and hope in adversity. As well as setting up an Observer interview with Astrid Lindgren’s daughter, Karin – for whom Pippi was created – we announced a raft of partnerships with companies including Biscuiteers, Design House Stockholm and Primus, who will support the campaign with limited-edition Pippi products.

Emperors and ethics

We rely on the LRB to supply us with a diverse range of subjects for discussion, and this year’s Winter Lectures more than deliver. The series kicks off this evening with Colin Burrow’s ‘Fiction and the Age of Lies’. Following that, on February 14th, Meehan Crist will attempt to answer the question ‘Is it OK to have children?’, exploring the ethics of having kids in the age of climate crisis (and addressing the relationship between BP and the British Museum while she’s at it). Richard Lloyd Parry will complete the trio of events with ‘Akihito and the Sorrow of Japan’ on February 28th.

Sweet treats from Moomin and Lola’s

Moomin fans with a sweet tooth, get yourselves down to the Moomin Shops in Covent Garden or Camden Stables Market on 14th February, as the first 50 customers will receive a FREE Moomin x Lola’s cupcake. The giveaway is to launch a new partnership we’ve brokered between the brands, which will see Lola’s selling six different cupcake designs featuring the beloved inhabitants of Moominvalley from 1st February. There will even be limited edition Moomin cakeboxes – Moominmamma would be proud. You heard it here first!

Riot Recommends

Thinking of starting the new year with a boost to your cultural calendar? Here are our top, non-Riot related, recommendations for February…

Netflix’s Cheer has been keeping us busy this month, a docuseries following a US cheerleading team through its 14th national championships. Sex Education 2 has also returned to Netflix and is well worth watching. If you’re feeling low in the long winter months, book your tickets for Stewart Lee’s new stand-up show, Snowflake/Tornado, which is currently touring through the UK and guaranteed to make you crack a smile. We’ve updated our Spotify playlists and recommend Mac Miller’s posthumous album Circles which will give you all the feels. Also, Yungblud’s debut album 21st Century Liability will keep you energised with its creative blend of different genres. And finally, it’s award season and this year’s selection of films hasn’t disappointed with 1917 and Just Mercy ranking high on our must-see list.

 

Moomin and Lola’s Cupcakes Launch Delicious New Range

The release of the collection will be celebrated with a Valentine’s themed giveaway

The collaboration between Lola’s Cupcakes and iconic Finnish brand Moomin Characters will be available at Lola’s Cupcakes outlets from 1st February.

The range will include six different cupcake designs featuring the beloved inhabitants of Moominvalley. See Moomintroll, Snorkmaiden, Little My and others as they jump from the page to icing paper, to adorn one of Lola’s Cupcakes signature sweet treats. For adventurers like Snufkin, wanting to grab a cupcake on the go, there will also be limited edition Moomin cakeboxes to protect the cupcakes on their travels.

As the range focuses on the love and friendship between the characters, there will be a special giveaway of the cupcakes at the Moomin shops, in Covent Garden and Camden Stables Market, on Valentine’s Day. The first 50 customers to visit each of the Moomin shops on 14th February will receive a free cupcake.

Sophia Jansson, creative director of Moomin Characters and niece of Tove Jansson, said: “Moominmamma says that all good things are good for the stomach. She is known throughout Moominvalley to always welcome you with something delicious when you visit. That is why Lola’s Cupcakes, famous all over London, match so well with the values of the Moomins for whom food is also a source of joy and togetherness. Just like the Moomins, we long to be snug and cosy and feel a sense of togetherness which makes February the perfect time to launch this range, with Valentine’s Day bringing those we love to the forefront of our minds. We hope Moomin fans will find joy from this delicious collaboration with Lola’s Cupcakes.”

Asher Budwig, managing director of Lola’s Cupcakes said: “Respect for nature, one of Moomin Characters’ core brand values, complemented our core mission at Lola’s Cupcakes, which is to create delicious cakes from the finest natural ingredients. We also believe that our cupcakes should look as good as they taste, which has been easy to achieve using the beautiful images from the Moomin archive.”

The Moomin x Lola’s range of cupcakes will be available from 1st February. The cupcakes will cost £4 each and £24 for a box of six.

The Astrid Lindgren Company reveals UK plans for Pippi Longstocking’s 75th anniversary in 2020

“I wanted to be Pippi Longstocking. How extraordinary it must be to never once feel constrained by the opinions of others. Now I am grown-up I know this is the single quality I would still give almost anything for.” – Lauren Child, former Waterstones Children’s Laureate

www.pippioftoday.com

2020 marks 75 years since the publication of Sweden’s most famous literary export, Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking, in 1945. Nine-year-old Pippi – originally created by the author for her daughter during the dark days of World War Two – was a new kind of children’s character: a free-spirited girl with superhuman strength who uses a powerful mix of anti-authoritarian thinking and kindness to challenge the status quo and to bring joy to the lives of those around her.

The iconic redhead has become a role model for generations, and an international bestseller – the Pippi Longstocking stories are amongst the most translated children’s books in the world, with over 70 million copies sold in 70 languages. She is regularly picked as a favourite children’s character and famous names to have been inspired by her include Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, Cerys Matthews and even Stieg Larsson, who admitted his character Lisbeth Salander (The Millennium Trilogy) was directly influenced by Lindgren’s creation.

Over the course of 2020, UK audiences will have multiple opportunities to be introduced to and interact with ‘The Strongest Girl in the World’ through a charity partnership launched today, new books and storytelling events across the country, before Pippi appears on stage in Pippi at Cirkus – a musical circus executive produced by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, premiering in Stockholm in summer 2020 – and on the big screen in a new film adaptation from STUDIOCANAL and Heyday Films, the creators of Paddington 1 & 2, in the near future.

‘Pippi of Today’ partnership with Save The Children

Astrid Lindgren was a life-long campaigner for children’s rights, changing Swedish law on corporal punishment and advocating for children’s voices to be heard. Continuing this legacy, The Astrid Lindgren Company are collaborating with Save The Children to launch ‘Pippi of Today’, a global campaign to raise awareness and funds for the charity’s work for girls on the move. The number of girls on the move is at the highest it’s been since the end of the Second World War. Like Pippi, millions of girls are forced to leave their families and make homes in new cities and countries, and they are at greater risk of being exposed to violence and exploitation, such as sexual abuse and child marriage. In most cases, their education is also often put on hold. The campaign will tell the stories of 13 refugee girls over the course of the anniversary year, giving voice to their experiences and holding Pippi up as an empowering role model for strength, courage and hope in adversity. Biscuiteers, Design House Stockholm, Houdini Sportswear, Primus and Unilever are just some of the companies supporting the campaign with limited-edition Pippi products for 2020.

New Pippi Longstocking books from Oxford University Press

Lindgren’s long-term UK publisher will release six new, highly-illustrated editions of the Pippi stories during 2020: two chapter books, Meet Pippi Longstocking and Pippi Longstocking and the Snirkle Hunt (March 2020), featuring artwork from the original illustrator, Ingrid Vang Nyman; Pippi LongstockingPippi Longstocking Goes Aboard and Pippi Longstocking in the South Seas (May 2020), with black and white illustrations by Mini Grey, and a hardback gift edition of Pippi Longstocking Goes Aboard (October 2020), illustrated in full colour by former Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Lauren Child.

Pippi Longstocking events around the UK

Acclaimed storyteller Danyah Miller (I Believe in Unicorns) will be touring  the UK with her one-woman storytelling performance, Meet Pippi Longstocking, appearing at venues and festivals including the Imagine Children’s Festival (February 2020), British Library (March 2020) and the newly opened Story Museum (May 2020) during the first half of the year. In additionPippi Longstocking: A Swashbuckling Musical Adventure, adapted for the stage by Mike Akers with music by Stu Barker, will travel to York Theatre Royal in July 2020 whilst a pop-up exhibition is scheduled to appear at Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, East London, later in the summer. Further event details will be announced over the course of 2020.

Olle Nyman, CEO at The Astrid Lindgren Company and grandson of Astrid Lindgren, said: “We can’t wait for British audiences to experience the particular combination of wit, humanity, independence and flair that turned both Astrid Lindgren and Pippi Longstocking into icons.

“For us at the Astrid Lindgren Company, it is important to continue my grandmother’s fight for children’s rights. In a world with ever stronger currents of nationalism and xenophobia, we want to highlight our shared responsibility for all children in demonstrating their strength and potential. With the help of Pippi, we want to support the girls who need it most, while also making their voices heard. Save the Children’s activities aim to support them, while Pippi serves as an inspiring role model that gives them strength and hope.”

Inger Ashing, CEO at Save the Children International, adds: “Save the Children is excited to partner with the Astrid Lindgren Company to help expand our work for girls on the move. In 2019, we interviewed girls from around the world who are on the move to better understand their experiences and how we can best reach them with the right efforts. But we still lack sufficient data and knowledge in this area. With the funds raised, we will be able to help fill these knowledge gaps and expand our work, so that every girl survives, learns and is protected.”