The world’s first amphibious ice cream van set sail down the River Thames yesterday ahead of a UK tour.

The vessel reaches a top speed of five knots and chimes Rod Stewart’s classic ‘We Are Sailing’ as it ploughs through the waves.

The  ‘HMS Flake 99’ was specially commissioned by Fredericks, makers of Cadbury’s ice cream to mark National Ice Cream Week (30th May – 5th June).

The vehicle brought a smile to commuters’ faces as it passed Battersea Power Station, Westminster Bridge and the London Eye.

After a nationwide tour of Britain’s beaches, there are plans to take the vehicle across the English Channel and on to the canals of Venice next year.

Early morning strollers and boating enthusiasts enjoyed scoops by the surf in Blackpool on Monday when the customised craft completed a successful, secret maiden voyage.

The vehicle will now commence a tour of UK beaches – visiting thousands of sun seekers on Britain’s beaches as the staycation boom continues.

A growing number of councils ban vans from housing estates, parks and outside schools because of concerns about noise pollution. Others have created ice cream selling ­“exclusion zones” in town ­centres, hiked the cost of a van operator’s licence and limited how long vans can sound their chimes.

She’s captained by ice cream mad David Mounfield, a stand-up comedian from Brighton, who was chosen after winning an online competition.

Jenny Bostock, Consumer Marketing Manager for Fredericks in Skelmersdale, Lancashire comments: ” If you can’t make it to your local beach to see our van, you can always pick up a pack of four from your local supermarket. We are now considering taking the remarkable vehicle across the Channel and onto the canals of Venice to champion Britain’s beaches and give our continental cousins the ultimate taste of the British summertime.”

For more information, visit www.cadburyicecreamland.com

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Press Information and Pictures from Taylor Herring PR +(44) 208 206 5151

The Kaizo Advocacy Index is a biannual study that measures the online reputation of 20 brands across Food, Software, Airline and Mobile sectors. The study examines independent links on four Google search engine tools – Web, News, Groups and Blogs, as well as posts on Twitter and Facebook Groups. Content is assigned a positive (Promoter), neutral (Passive) or negative (Detractor) sentiment score and an index is created by subtracting the percentage of Promoters from the percentage of Detractors.

Del Monte, Virgin Atlantic, T-Mobile and Symbian led their individual sectors with scores of 45%, 33%, 7% and 13% respectively. The worst performing brands across each sector were Heinz (8%), Ryanair (-62%), O2 (-20%) and Microsoft (-9%).

Del Monte demonstrates that brands using creative methods to engage with consumers and promote positive online conversations can quickly find themselves ahead of the competition.

The brand increased its score by a massive 54% to knock Virgin Atlantic off top spot after previously coming bottom of the previous Kaizo Index conducted at the start of the year in which Del Monte recorded the lowest score of all the food brands (-9%).

The turnaround is largely due to the launch of a low calorie frozen dessert in the shape of James Bond actor Daniel Craig’s torso after over 1,000 women voted him to be the celebrity they would most like to lick. The campaign provoked comments such as “Ooooh yum” after over 1,000 women voted him to be the celebrity they would most like to lick.