According to London-based company PMW Limited, “Bellyvision” – advertising on someone’s stomach – is an effective promotional technique. But will it work in Carlisle? News & Star reporter Victoria Raimes braved the cold in a bid to find out…

“What the bloody hell do you look like?” That was the first abusive comment fired at my accomplice and I as we walk through Carlisle city centre with ‘News & Star’ painted on our midriffs.

I tell the speaker we are displaying a hip new way of advertising and ask him what he thinks.

“I think it’d be more effective if you got your top off,” 16-year-old James King replies.

Rather cheeky, considering I already have a sizeable chunk of my clothing removed.

It is all in aid of testing out whether “Bellyvision” could be a success in Cumbria.

London-based company PMW Limited has launched the idea as a unique promotional technique. Instead of getting employees to market their products by dressing up as a hot dog or walking the streets carrying a sandwich board, they have added a new dimension to advertising by painting the names of products on the stomachs of eye-catching models.

We employ Michael Ayres, the director and make-up artist at Struts Fancy Dress Shop in Carlisle, to create our own advertising logo.

I volunteer as a Bellyvision guinea pig and am joined by Matthew Watson, an 18-year-old apprentice hairdresser for Tony & Guy.

We hardly dare move or breathe as Michael expertly paints ‘News & Star’ on to our tummies with a steady hand.

I am feeling more apprehensive as I inspect my billboard-belly-to-be. The criteria for the London company is a washboard stomach and I’m not entirely convinced I qualify. I’m not a toned and tanned teenager, I’m a rather pasty person who will be relying on the suck-in-my-stomach technique to sell newspapers.

Still, I reason, at least I can fit all of the words on it.

Before we know it, we are strutting our stuff in The Lanes shopping centre. People stop and stare, some look curious, a couple titter and others appear downright nonplussed at our human billboard impressions.

“What does that say? News and Star? Eh?” probes a teenage boy.

“What have you got on your belly?” asks one woman.

“What are you doing?” says another. After finding out she tuts and walks away before looking back and laughing.

But in the centre of town the reaction is slightly more positive. Men and women peer over their shoulders and children drag on their parents’ arms to get a better peek.

Amidst the stares a couple of people laugh and smile. One young woman is kind enough to comment that we look “very nice”.

However, we are soon back to negative jibes. Two teenage girls walk by, look back, and whisper “they look so stupid”. I’d like to respond but I’m scared they might be right.

Gary Norman, (30), from Carlisle, is staring at us intently: “Aren’t you bloody cold?” he asks.

We certainly are. It’s a freezing, rainy morning. We have been shivering for an hour and the goosebumps are well-risen on our skin. Despite our teeth chattering, we manage to ask him what he thinks of the advertising technique.

“I think it depends what the weather’s like! But, yes, it could work, it’s quite clever.”

Perhaps when Cumbria hits the good weather Bellyvision will be more successful, with the customers and with ourselves, but we could be waiting until July at this rate.

After an hour we are too weather-weary to continue and we make our way back to our prospective workplaces. Before getting back to the hair and scissors, Matt admits that he had, in fact, enjoyed the experience.

“Despite being freezing, it was a good laugh. I think this technique could work, especially in the summer. If Tony & Guy asked me to do it for them, I would.”

I enjoyed an element of it too. And at £30 for two hours, which is the going rate for Bellyvision models at the moment, there are worse ways to spend your time.

Only the News & Star’s next set of circulation figures will tell…