Underwear brand scores prominent plug on ABC News Breakfast
ABC News Breakfast viewers were subject to a bit of accidental advertising on the national broadcaster on Wednesday morning, as an interview segment featured a prominent brand logo.
Queensland boxer Liam Paro sported a tee for Step One, an Australian bamboo underwear company, during an interview with sports presenter, Charles Brice.
The ABC’s charter prohibits “product placement and other forms of embedded or surreptitious advertising”, which this would certainly fall under, despite the no doubt accidental nature of the placement.
To the credit of the ABC, the production team moved quickly, inserting a second news ticker along the bottom of the screen to shield the logo, before cutting to stock footage for close to a minute.
When they returned to Paro, he was leaning in toward the screen, doing his very best self-censorship.
Recently, the ABC was cleared of breaching broadcasting standards for another tee-related mishap, after local musician Adrian Eagle appeared on a October 27 episode of music trivia program, Spicks and Specks, wearing a shirt that read ‘Free Palestine’.
The Ombudsman’s Office received 42 content complaints, but ruled the message could not “be reasonably interpreted as gratuitous or likely to condone or encourage prejudice.”
Advertising bamboo underpants during the morning news, however? No doubt, the Ombudsman’s Office will be hearing from disgruntled boxer short fans before too long.
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Does this mean that Dan Andrews’ longstanding sponsorship by The North Face was endorsed by the ABC?