The Industry

Australian TV amazes me. Adverts cut into programmes, and programmes have adverts within them. If you know much about EU advertising rules, the following four examples may make you glad you live in the EU:

1. Breaching the Programme/Advert divide: The other morning, a news presenter said "...and check out this poor guy:" and then showed what started off to be what looked like a comedy sketch. It ended with the chap discovering a cruise line company and smiling away. Afterwards, the news presenter said jokingly 'ahhh and it was only an advert', then carried on reading the news!
2. Untimely Promotion: Channel-skipping onto a cartoon called 'Polly Pocket' (a vaguely famous brand of doll): Whether this programme would make it onto EU airwaves is questionable enough, but to have adverts inbetween it for Polly Pocket merchandise is surely rather dubious. Certainly in the EU, adverts must not include the work of actors who are in the programmes that wrap around them.
3. Subliminal messages: Watching the 'Aria' pop music awards this evening, the short stings between each potential pop act winner had strong flashes of KFC (the sponsor), which lingered in my mind for some time.
4. Advertorials: Watching a breakfast show, the presenter turns to her co-host and says 'Now lets go to Sheryl, who will tell us how to make our lives easier in the garden'. Were you expecting a few minutes of handy gardening hints? I was. I wasn't expecting a five minute QVC style piece to camera about how great a certain lawnmower was. Afterwards, the breakfast show continued as normal.

Thankfully, I have been introduced to 'The Chaser', which is a bit like that Dom Jolly show, but considerably more political and quite quite funny.