21.04.2010
To launch the Vauxhall UK Beatbox Championships 2010 – the annual event that celebrates the country’s best human beatboxers – Vauxhall Motors has created a unique and bespoke, working Corsa-shaped microphone.
Some of you might well be asking yourselves what exactly ‘Beatbox’ is – well it’s probably easier to show you than describe it in words and this gives us a great excuse to replay one of our favourite videos featured in DR’s Video Blog last year..
Nathan “Flutebox” Lee and Beardyman are two of the UK’s premier beatboxers performing live at the Google offices in London - click to view in SkiddPlayer
The creation of this bespoke item involved a team of fine artists from Vauxhall’s agency (aptly named Mischief PR) making a Corsa-shaped mould before intricately wrapping in a wire mesh. The mould was then removed and the car-head affixed to a Shure SM58 microphone. The inside is hollowed out so that the microphone is fully-functioning allowing beatboxers to use it in reality.
This great piece of kit, which is the only one in existence, will be presented to the winner of the grand final on 25th June 2010, where they will receive the prize of a Vauxhall Corsa SXi and of course the title of UK Beatbox Champion 2010.
Both Vauxhall and Ford have been using beatbox to reach a younger audience - click to view in SkiddPlayer
Pictured below is the one-of-a-kind Corsa microphone and MC Zani, the 2008 Vauxhall UK Beatbox Champion, giving it a go.
About Steve Davies
Steve is a media, venture, and technology advisor and a former Partner at KPMG Consulting, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Managing Partner at EIM - his clients range from global web and media companies to small start-ups. He formed Drivers Republic (DR) in 2007, the UK's first digital automotive magazine, with a team of EVO and Autocar writers before creating SkiddMark, and also writes as a guest contributor on Unruly Media’s Meme Machine blog and for Econsultancy’s digital marketing blog.
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