Ramsay to front BT small-businesses campaign

BT has hired the TV celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay to be the face of a new advertising campaign aimed at small businesses and is preparing to launch a social networking site targeted at those users.

The multimillion-pound campaign represents the first time the group has used television advertising to address the small-business market.

The adverts will be based around the theme of businesses sticking to what they do best and will feature the famously foul-mouthed chef becoming increasingly frustrated with IT.

In one scene, Mr Ramsay struggles to set up a computer while his kitchen catches fire in the background.

The campaign coincides with BT's annual small-business conference in Covent Garden later this week. During the conference, BT will unveil a new networking site called Tradespace that is aimed at small businesses.

The site aims to replicate the success of social networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo by building communities among small-business users.

The site will be free to use, but customers who want increased functionality which enables browsers to call the user by clicking a button will be charged £15 a month.

The company will showcase various other products at the two-day conference and will also run a Dragon's Den-style business workshop where budding entrepreneurs can pitch ideas for business applications to BT.