So exactly who’s idea was it to essentially put on national television, the kind of charity auction that normally happens at expensive balls? Is it really entertaining to watch people who evidently have far too much money spending the equivalent of several salaries on various prizes?
There’s something obscene about seeing these disinterested people sitting around in dinner jackets quaffing champagne – they make a poor audience and Googling their various names reveals people from the Sunday Times rich list who non-Hello readers like myself have never heard of.
It may well be a good way to get the very rich to contribute to charity, but it’s not entertainment. Far better to keep these things in the function rooms in hotels around Park Lane and Grosvenor Square. Don’t involve the public at large.
There is a “Bid A Quid” series of prizes for us normal people, where it only costs a pound to bid. I note that one of the prizes is a trip to Paramount Studios where we’ll supposedly see where they shot Forrest Gump and War of the Worlds. This trip is illustrated with clips – very timely given that War of the Worlds is released on DVD tomorrow, and Forrest Gump DVD and CD set was released a couple of weeks ago. The value of this prize will come directly from Paramount Home Video’s marketing budget for those two releases.
This was nothing compared to the Tiger Woods video game prize which sees someone incorporated into the next release of the video games series. Helpfully this arrives at the same time as the release of the 2006 edition of the game. Indeed the prize was illustrated with clips from the game’s TV ad.
These really are both examples of commercial sponsorship on the BBC. For a worthy cause (Children in Need) undoubtedly. But don’t kid yourself that it commercial sponsorship of the Beeb doesn’t happen.