Lara Croft gets into bed with David Beckham

NEWS Vodafone has signed up computer game heroine Lara Croft - adding her to the brand's stable of pop culture icons which also includes England football captain David Beckham. Vodafone has signed a deal with computer game publisher Eidos to secure exclusive rights to distribute games and animated screensavers based on Eidos' most famous creation - the adventurer, archaeologist and all round posh totty Croft who starred in the best-selling Tomb Raider series of games. In the mobile market recent competition has been all about increasing ARPU - average revenue per user - with one demographic identified as being particularly attractive - the young. To date Vodafone certainly has the edge when it comes to securing increased ARPU among younger customers who are spending increasing amounts of (their parents') money on their mobile phones - seen as the must-have item and ultimate playground status symbol. The signing of David Beckham to front the company's advertising campaigns was seen as a major coup and the deal with Eidos enables Vodafone live! to offer more premium mobile content to sell to the youth audience. Guy Laurence, CEO at Vodafone Global Content Services, said in a statement: "Tomb Raider is a first class addition to the Vodafone live! portfolio. Lara Croft is one of the most popular video games characters ever, and we expect her to be a significant driver of games and downloads." The deal will see Vodafone live! offer its users a series of three 15-level Lara Croft adventures. The first is to be called 'Tomb Raider: The Osiris Codex'.