Gruen Transfer to use comedy British riot footage days after death at G20
Tonight’s Gruen Transfer features potentially controversial footage of British police clashing with rioters over a Benny Hill soundtrack. The show – which airs on ABC1 at 9pm today, comes in the same month that a protester died after being shoved over by a policeman at the G20 protests in London.
In this evening’s episode, ad agency Gatecrasher Perth takes on Brisbane’s BCM in a challenge to create the best ad to persuade the International Olympic Commission to switch the 2012 games from England to Australia.
Gatecrasher’s execution is to feature riot police in action as if they are doing various Olympic events. The ABC has already uploaded the clip to YouTube:
Did we recently see Aussie ‘anti-riot’ police shown on tele rough handling people (maybe drunk) a lot more violently?
Was there not a survey among Aussies who saw Sydney riot police on tele, where about 50% of people said, “yeh way to go” and 50% were horrified?
Just suppose the rough throwing to the ground of the youngster by an Aussie policeman had caused the youth to bash his head on ground and then die.
There may be a suspension, an inquiry, but, meanwhile, should an exploitive commercial be made and aired that tries to demonise the policeman (or Sydney).
Someone died and everyone knows the UK policeman has to live with an outcome he certainly did not mean to happen.
Surely the ABC should not give it credence (airtime) to anyone trying to commercially exploit such a situation.
Don’t give it air time.
I thought they could have used video of soccer penalties for diving.
“Gruen Transfer delivers the ratings despite adland backlash” Obviously this story has run its race and the ABC are looking for another controversial story to bring in the ratings.
No matter what the excuse is, the ABC should be ashamed of itself, not only for giving it airtime but for immediately uploading the clip onto YouTube.
As Roger said, a man died at those riots and his family are having to deal with that. To have the incident that led to his death made a mockery of will make it even harder as you can guarantee the British press will be all over this.
This makes Australia look petty, childish and extremely insensitive. I’ll pass on Gruen tonight thanks.
Good on ABC for giving this airtime.
Hi Karen,
I’m a fan of Gruen, but was surprised when I saw the YouTube clip this morning.
Two notes of caution ahead of the ABC responding:
1. Gruen is pre-recorded, so this episode may have been put together before Ian Tomlinson’s death – and there’s a better chance again that the agency made the ad before the incident (although some of the footage does look to me like it’s from that event – but I don’t know).
2. We haven’t seen the reaction of the panel. For all we know, they may criticise the taste of it themselves.
By the way, I’m still not sure if I’m reacting more strongly to this because I’m British so the whole thing feels closer to home, than your average Aussie ABC viewer would feel.
As an added declaration of interest, a close family member was potentially in harm’s way through being involved in policing the protests, which probably makes it harder again to see it as a comedy subject.
And as a final thought, I wonder what the test of potential to offend here should be? Obviously the ABC’s primary duty is to Australian viewers, but once on YouTube, it’s visible to a still outraged British public.
For what it’s worth, I think they should pull the segment.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
As you say Tim, it is a live issue in the UK for the family of the bereaved and not least as the Policeman is potentially up for a charge of manslaughter.
Private Eye issue 17 April – 30 April features the matter on its front page and although the caption includes dark humour it is not trivialised.
April, I’d ask whether it would be acceptable for the national broadcaster in another country to give airtime to a commercial promoting a brand of matches exploiting the tragic bush-fires with a slant towards all Aussies being arsenists?
Yep for sure you can find every flavour of scandalous exploitation on the web, the question is whether the national broadcaster should get it’s hands dirty.
I repeat Tim’s view, for what it is worth they should pull the segment.
Gruen sucks.
The show has become a circus and undermines the whole industry and makes us look like wankers.
Fuck off Todd and Co.
Remember how we got the shits when theat british paper cracked the joke about the bushfires?
Boots on the other foot here.
The Mail on Sunday did exactly that when they published the front page photo with a joking caption that the fire was the other way. Remember the outrage that caused at the time.
I agree that the show is pre-recorded and potentially this was done before Ian Tomlinson’s death. While still not great to be screening the ad, I think it was the ABC’s conscious decision to upload the ad onto YouTube that I have the greatest concern with.
Had it stayed in Australia’s loungerooms with the panellists discussing it amongst themselves, I don’t think the fallout would have been as bad. To deliberately throw it out to the world shows a deep lack of respect to people affected by these kinds of situations.
Brave of Gatecrasher.
Accordign to their website, WA Police is a client: http://www.gatecrasher.com.au/.....pnum=11249
I hope they think it’s funny.
Newspapers, The Mail on Sunday, Private Eye or whatever, are not the national broadcaster.
For those of you from england or in england – this is 2009, the world doesn’t revolve around you fuckers anymore
An interesting question Fakerasher.
I wonder what Benny Hill would have thought?
Think outside the box Jed. It’s not just about the riots in the UK. Think back to the LA riots or the Tiannamen Square protest or anything similar.
As Roger said, our national broadcaster uploading a clip that uses this kind of violence as a “funny ad” onto YouTube totally trivialises all those violent events and rubs it in the face who have been directly affected by them.
I saw an ad for a car the other day yet some people were killed on the roads on the weekend. What about their families and the people who died. Car makers are so insensitive. They should pull their ads straight away.
Gruen seeks to demonstrate the scale of marketers brilliant ingenuity and insincerity.
I wonder where it will fall tonight.
Tim as an expat Aussie currently living in the UK can I just point out that these images are not from the recent G20 riots – at least not the footage that’s being shown frequently on the UK news which is relevant to the current 3 enquiries into 2 serious injuries and one death going on.
It would appear that the show was recorded before the recent tragic developments.
Personally I think the clip is in poor taste particularly at this time however there is always that danger when trivialising or trying to find humour in something so serious. The question is why the ABC are NOW appearing to promote it!
Dear Bob Anon –
the only circus in town that undermines the advertising industry & makes us look like wankers are the anonymous & abusive posts using intelligent witticisms such as:
“Gruen sucks” and “Fuck off Todd & Co”.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony here?
I watched the show last night. Within the context of the programme, the piece still didn”t feel right, but was certainly less offensvie than when it stands on its own.
If you’re interested, the result was a draw – both BCM and Gatecrasher got trophies.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Hi Adam,
I must admit my finger hovered over the delete option in the moderation panel for Bob Anon.
Still not sure if I should have deleted it. It doesn’t exactly add to the quality of the debate, does it?
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Was it just me or was there a tense (nervous laughter) reaction from the Gruen studio audience to the Riot spot? It didn’t exactly get condemned by the panel – I don’t think they allocated any time for that – although Todd and Dan didn’t seem too impressed and voted for the other one. On the other hand Russ and Dee seemed to think it was hilarious, which probably sums up what the general public would have thought: 50 percent for, 50 percent horrified.
I never realised what a thoughtful and sensitive bunch advertisers and marketers were.
It’s starting to feel like people have an axe to grind with the Gruen show – we are constantly bombarded with images and commentary finding humour in world events.
Why so serious?
The water cannon scene was from Charleroi, at Euro 2000, which is in Belgium.
Who do I write to about misleading and deceptive ad’s? 😉
Hi Tim – I’ve listened to the debates go back & forth about anonymous posts, and I still feel that in 99% of cases you should put your name up…or shut the fuck up.
I understand that both you & Lynchy struggle with this issue. I can see the argument that with no anonymous posts, they’re be few posts at all. But I can’t help thinking that that would be a better result than reading the cowardly cacophony of mewling maggots like Bob Anon.
If you’re making a constructive criticism, or advancing a strong opinion, and putting your name to it may cost you your job, being anonymous is OK. But please – don’t post anonymous sledges – especially against the Gruen Transfer, which is a brilliant program about advertising – that’s not actually aimed at the advertising industry.
I don’t agree with everything on that program – but I’m really glad that it debates & deconstructs ideas in an intelligent, funny & occasionally bad taste fashion.
Hi Adam,
The wierd thing is that I agree with you, right until the moment my finger hovers over the delete button. It feels like censorship. Even if it is censorship of something that doesn’t add much to the debate.
But it also puzzles me. Unless the likes of Bob Anon works directly for Todd or Russel, why be scared to state a view like that with a name to it? Admittedly, they might temper the expression of the idea a bit, but the opinion itself is a fair enough one to have.
Those who have great careers in this industry tend to polarise people, but at least they stand for something.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
A storm in a very english teacup
You may be right, Peter (or Jed, as you were earlier in this discussion).
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
clever monkey
Does that mean I get a banana?
yes. i have one in my pants.
You and Jed should probably keep that to yourselves, Peter