Experts say social media can be detrimental for us.
And in this case, they’re probably right, because you deserve a massive pat on the back if you managed to stop yourself from scrolling on Twitter yesterday and inevitably avoid your eyes being burned with the image of the latest food collaboration that everyone’s talking about.
We mean it when we say everyone’s talking about it too.
Not only has this cursed tweet been retweeted over 70K times, it’s also racked up tens of thousands of comments from people, companies, countries, and more, all wading in on the debate.
Even Greater Manchester Police has got involved with it too, and have confirmed that the matter has been “passed over to our major incident team who deals with cereal killers”, so you know it must be something pretty serious.
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There’s no denying it’s a violation, but if you’re still not sure what we’re referring to yet, we’ll just say it’s probably not as bad as you’re thinking – or is it?
So, what are we talking about then?
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Well, yesterday morning just after 9:30am, as we were all minding our own business and cracking on with our day, two iconic British food brands decided it was the perfect time to collaborate, so Weetabix took to Twitter to share a snap of a bowl of its hearty cereal topped with, none other than, Heinz Baked Beans.
And it absolutely broke the internet, with a level of outrage not seen in a long time.
The public, quite rightly, just couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around what they were seeing, with the main question on everyone’s lips – this can’t be serious, right?
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They’ve got to be having us on here? This is a joke?
Both foods are beloved in Britain, but no one in their right minds is topping their morning Weetabix with baked beans, are they?
It’s a question that remains unanswered at this point, and despite Weetabix’s Assistant Brand Manager revealing to LinkedIn that this whole debacle is one of the reasons why “I love my job”, we’re still none the wiser to concluding whether or not it’s a genuine match-up, or something devised solely for marketing purposes with the intent of getting everyone as wound up as they have.
For everyone’s sanity, we’ll keep our fingers crossed that the latter is true.
But it sounds like sanity might already be out the window anyway, because the official Twitter account of just about every other company you can think of has chipped in with their opinions.
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Let’s set aside our differences to prosecute this under the Geneva Convention.
National supermarket chain Sainsbury’s response managed to tie it in with last week’s meme of the moment, the Handforth Parish Council Zoom meeting madness, and the Jackie Weaver fan club that followed soon after it.
The north’s even united in agreement that it needs seeing to as well, with Yorkshire Tea willing to report the issue to the police, and Bolton-born bread brand Warburtons being prepared to back them up.
If you need a witness statement, please let us know
And whether you believe it or not, it’s even been deemed a serious enough issue for government authorities, national embassies, the actual country of Israel, the NHS, and the city centre department of our very own Greater Manchester Police, to get involved with too.
The latter informing the public that: “We’ve bean looking into this after a number of complaints today [and] due to its serious nature, we’ve passed it over to our major incident team who deals with cereal killers”.
We've bean looking into this after a number of complaints today. Due to its serious nature, we've passed it over to our major incident team who deals with cereal killers!
We didn’t even scratch the surface with replies to this tweet, as you’d probably be here all day if we had, so head on over to the full thread on Twitter if you want more.
Even though the concept has got all the elements of instant viral fame, you’d never have predicted it would’ve angered the globe quite as much as it has, so we can only imagine what it’s like at the Weetabix and Heinz HQs right now.
All we can say is, it’s massively kicked off and we hope they’re proud of themselves.
Now, that’s enough internet for one day.
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Huge queues form in Manchester as Molly-Mae Hague hands out free coffees and cookies
Daisy Jackson
Hundreds of people have flocked into Manchester city centre for a chance to meet super-influencer Molly-Mae Hague in the flesh.
The 25-year-old former Love Island star is hosting a pop-up for her fashion brand Maebe.
And after briefly promoting it on her Instagram stories to her 8.5m followers, the crowds have formed fast.
Molly-Mae herself is in Manchester handing out free coffees and cookies to celebrate International Women’s Day.
The Maebe coffee truck and pop-up structure are in Lincoln Square, just past the Town Hall.
Fans of the star (who are, yes, mostly female) have been queueing for several hours ahead of the pop-up opening at 10am.
Many have been posing for selfies and chatting to a beaming Molly-Mae after collecting their free treats.
There are also film crews in attendance, who it’s believed are filming for the second instalment of her upcoming documentary, Molly-Mae: Behind It All.
She launched her brand Maebe last September, pitched as offering accessible luxury fashion.
Previous Maebe pop-ups have only taken place in London, despite Molly-Mae living in the north west.
The queues are still raging in Manchester for the pop-up, if anyone was planing to head down.
The 1975 set to release live album of ‘Still… At Their Very Best’ Manchester show at AO Arena
Danny Jones
The 1975 are releasing a live album version of 2024’s ‘Still… At Their Very Best’ tour show at the AO Arena in Manchester.
As someone who was there in the flesh, trust us, it’s a performance worth reliving.
With the Wilmslow-formed Manc adoptees looking like they might be gearing up for another album cycle, not to mention being named as one of the headliners on the 2025 Glastonbury lineup, it seems as though they break from the spotlight is coming to an end.
It’s been two years and a half years since they dropped their last album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, but they’ve been touring around the world pretty much ever since and now they’ve decided to press one of their concert highlights onto vinyl.
As you can see, perhaps the most striking thing about the upcoming live LP is the artwork for it. Although we can’t put our finger on exactly where it is, the imagery looks to be taken from a housing estate somewhere nearby.
To be honest, it wouldn’t matter whether it was in Greater Manchester or somewhere in their home county of Cheshire, for that matter: there’s just undeniably familiar and undeniably Northern-looking about the whole thing.
How on Earth they’ve managed to look something so normal and mundane somehow poetic and interesting we’ll never know, all we can guarantee is that the recordings pulled for this latest release are guaranteed to be brilliant.
Following the first world tour of their critically acclaimed fifth record, we waxed lyrical over the performance and after witnessing the evolution of that admittedly barmy live set all over again just over a year later, we went so far as to dub them among “some of the best performers on the planet”.
The only dilemma we have is deciding which one we prefer more: January 2023 or February 2024. Having said that, one did include a very special surprise guest…
We’re standing by that claim we made above, by the way; maybe it’s because of just how good that Manchester energy was and exactly why The 1975 boys have decided not just to document it but immortalise that particular gig as a live album.
Not only was it their de facto homecoming gig following a gargantuan world tour, but as it was the second iteration of that first ‘At Their Very Best’ show, the chances were it was always going to get better and more refined.
The setlist included the typical title track opening, ‘Looking For Somebody To Love’, ‘Happiness’, ‘Part Of The Band’ and ‘Oh Caroline’; ‘Robbers’, ‘Fallingforyou’, ‘Somebody Else’, ‘Chocolate’, ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’, ‘People’ and many more.
You can find the full tracklist and pre-order The 1975 ‘Still… At Their Very Best live album, taken directly from the AO Arena performance in Manchester, right HERE.
The cover for The 1975 Manchester live album and the moments it captures. (Credit: Dirty Hit/Audio North)