Elephantastic: Nelly and chums take over London

On my daily walk to work I quite often encounter some colourful characters, but I had an extra special treat this week when I bumped into this wee fellow near Devonshire Square:

"Elephantastic" by Lily Marneffe is turning heads in Devonshire Square 

London has been invaded by a flamboyant herd of extravagantly decorated elephants this week, as the first ever London Elephant Parade takes over the city.

Over 260 model elephants will be popping up at various prestigious locations, including tourist hot-spots Buckingham Palace, the South Bank and Trafalgar Square.

 Click here to see the best of the London Elephant Parade gallery courtesy of The Telegraph

The elephants have been decorated by various artists and designers, including Lulu Guiness, Paul Smith, Diane von Furstenberg and Alice Temperley, in aid of The Elephant Family charity. After a few months of city exploration, the collection will be auctioned off to raise £2 million for The Elephant Family and more than 15 UK conversation charities working in Asia.

What a brilliant way to draw attention to a good cause whilst capturing imagination and raising a few smiles - love it (I would put an elephant related joke here, but I'm sure you've herd them all before).

Ps. Stay tuned for my next article when I'll be discussing three very topical elephants...

Sixt gets a leg up from Carla Bruni

When car hire firm Sixt were creating their ads for the Citroen C3 Hatchback, they were clearly looking for that certain je ne sais quoi, and how better to provide a little va va voom than with a (little) French flavour?  Thus here we have their latest advert, a cheeky dig at president Sarkozy.

"Be like Madame Bruni, take a small french model"

Car hire firm Sixt uses a bit of Bruni banter

 The pint-sized president isn't unfamiliar with jokes about the height difference between him and his wife - the French love a good blague about Sarkozy's stacked heels,  and the Sun recently ran an April Fool's Day piece claiming the president was to undergo a "stretching" procedure. 

Forget stacked heels... passez-moi the stilts svp!

But apparently this latest jibe has crossed the line with Nicolas, and rumour has it that Sixt might be facing legal action. Someone needs to tell Sarkozy to chill out and be the bigger man... oh.