Multivitamin fruit drink Purdey’s recently launched a new partnership with modern day polymath Idris Elba to encourage people of all ages and from all walks of life, to escape the dreaded bowels of inertia and “Thrive On”. In a candid conversation, I spoke with Idris Elba about his involvement in the project, and just exactly what thriving on means to him.
EA: In summary, how did your relationship with Purdey’s and the #THRIVEON campaign come about?
IE: It was an introduction to be honest, Purdey’s is a brand that has been around for many years and they wanted to explore the idea of expanding into a more relevant space.
IE: To describe a Purdey’s drink is a difficult thing. It’s good for you, It’s healthy, but it also speaks to people that do long hours and work hard but don’t want to fill their bodies with caffeine. So I guess that was an area that I came in, because I worked really hard and really long hours and I actually used to drink Purdey’s anyway. Then when I met with the [Purdey’s] team, our conversations weren’t about regular endorsement-type relationships but what is my thinking on the type of customer – it was more of a consultancy. They were like “We like you Idris, how would you use Purdey’s and how would you influence others to drink it?” Those were the conversations we started to nurture, and now we’re here.
EA: What does the phrase “Thrive On” mean to you personally?
IE: Personally it means not putting the brakes on your own journey in life. I’m a super-ambitious – overly ambitious – person, and in order to get to my ambitions I just thrive I really push it, I don’t really take no for an answer and I’m not scared of failing.
IE: So that’s really what thriving on means, Don’t get caught up, just because you have a 9-5 job you love, or pays the bills, and there’s nothing else that you want to do. If there anything else that you want to do, don’t be afraid of going for them, even in the smallest way.
IE: I mean, a lot of people are comfortable within their own space but always dreaming of doing something and never quite getting there. I want to encourage that bit in-between, where you actually stop dreaming and get up and go and do it. It does mean longer hours, [Laughter] it does mean that you’ll be out of your comfort zone, learning a new skill, or actually falling on your face failing for a little bit, but I think it’s better for a well-rounded human being and life, if you try and go for you know?
EA: Yep agreed. You are active in a lot of arenas, from acting to music and even record breaking while driving Bentley’s on the beach, but what is next for Idris Elba?
IE: I do a series of documentaries, you may have seen it called “No limit” with Discovery, and the idea behind it is very similar to thriving; I want to do the things I dreamed about doing but learning from scratch. But my next big challenge for me personally is that I used to Kick box for a long time, when I was in my early-twenties, and then when I started working as an actor in New York I kind of stopped it. I never fought professionally, I never tried to, and I think what I’m going to do before I die, is I’m going to fight in a professional arena. I think that might be my next challenge. It’s a stupid idea, I mean I’m going to get battered and hurt.
EA: We don’t know that for sure… if you have a good matchmaker, then you might be alright.
IE: And someone that has their hands tied behind their back – that would help. [Laughter]
EA: So when history looks back on Idris Elba, what would you like to be remembered for, what would you like your legacy to be?
IE: Outside of being an actor, hopefully generally just being a decent human being. As a professional Actor I want people to say, you know what, there is a guy that put his heart into what he was doing, and I believed him every single time. Also someone that inspires people to… do. I am no superhuman, I’m regular, I was born with two arms and two legs and an ambition to do something, and I think everyone has that. And I just want people to go, “You know what, Idris was a go getter, and inspired me someway, somehow to go-get my own dream.”
EA: Your relationship with PURDEY’S (as a drink) goes back many years. Has your view on Purdey’s changed over the years? How do you feel it fits with the current health conscious mentality?
IE: Even back then Purdey’s was quite affiliated with the music industry, and the music industry is a 24hr business, like a Casino, it sucks you in and you never leave, and you do have to nourish yourself. Water is without the best thing for you to drink ever, but Purdey’s has a lot of ingredients that help you keep going – naturally. We’ve coined the phrase for the campaign “gives you a little lift”, but it does that naturally. There are way more demands on human beings now, we spend longer hours awake, we spend longer hours looking at various devices and I think that everyone seems to be a little bit more conscious about being healthier. You can tell, when London introduced the Boris Bikes to London, everyone used them, you would have not thought about it – people like riding bikes and people like riding to work, but that is a stream of consciousness that fitness is good for you and I think the messaging behind Purdey’s fits right into that.
IE: I’m not going to mention any competitors, but it’s not “hey let me get a quick fix, so I can get up and get buzzed.” It’s not that, it is designed to keep you going in way that when you are just feeling a little tired and I need a little boost, a little lift to keep me going. Its that kind of drink.
“POWER NAP IN A BOTTLE”
EA: I’ve experienced Purdey’s as a part of a cocktail and also as a refreshing beverage in its own right. How do you like to drink your Purdey’s?
IE: I tend to drink it on its own; I describe it as a ‘power nap in a bottle’ and that’s how I drink it. If I’ve got a long day, and its coming to six or seven at night and I’ve got to go to another set of meetings I typically like to have a power nap, and if I can’t, then I’ll have a Purdey’s instead. I actually haven’t drank it with alcohol or with a mixer yet.
EA: Finally, if you had one piece of advice you could give to anybody, what would it be?
IE: Don’t be afraid of anything – as a general rule. So you could apply it to having a conversation with someone, which is going to be a difficult conversation, don’t be afraid of it. Or if you’re about to accept your Graduation Day certificate, don’t be afraid of it. That would be my advice, don’t be afraid of anything. No fear. Fear is a useless emotion – is it an emotion? A feeling, fear is a useless feeling.
Thrive On is a partnership between Purdey’s and Idris Elba, a platform designed to enable and inspire people, giving them the courage to follow their own path; visit https://www.facebook.com/Purdeys/ to find out more.
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#THRIVEON
