Jeremy Kyle used to work at Virgin Radio hosting the late night “Jezza’ Confessions” show where he took calls and gave advice in between playing music.
But most people these days know him from his morning ITV show where his guests confront various issues.
Actually that’s a pretty polite way of saying that some very stupid people from the dregs of society have been lured to Manchester with the promise of a night in a hotel and a free meal or too, in return for washing their dirty laundry in public in front of a judgemental host and audience.
It’s tawdry television, and is pretty much indefensible. I had the misfortune of seeing a bit the other day when a youth had the results of a DNA test revealed on the show, only to discover that the person he thought was his biological father wasn’t. He was in tears, and considering that the show is served up for entertainment purposes, you couldn’t help but feel a voyeur in this person’s very personal moment.
But it gets great ratings for ITV.
The show hit the headlines last week when a judge labelled the show has a “human form of bear-baiting.”
“It seems to me that the purpose of this show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people whose lives are in turmoil.”
He added that it was “human bear-baiting which goes under the guise of entertainment”.
“It should not surprise anyone that these people, some of whom have limited intellects, become aggressive with each other.
“This type of incident is exactly what the producers want. These self-righteous individuals should be in the dock with you. They pretend there is some kind of virtue in putting out a show like this,” said Judge Berg.
Judges can make crass and stupid comments at times, but it’d be hard to argue with these.
A couple of days later, and there were further allegations, denied, that an alcoholic guest was given lager.
Now comes news that the programme’s sponsor, Learn Direct, has pulled out of the show. On the face of it, that’s a sensible course of action for worthwhile organisation.
But I have a question:
What the hell were they thinking of when they sponsored the show in the first place?
Learn Direct is a government funded organisation, and the reported £500,000 a year sponsorship contract comes out of tax-payers’ money. The sponsors knew very well what they were getting into when they signed up for the programme. Certainly, the kind of people who appear on the show, and perhaps many of the viewers are perhaps in Learn Direct’s target market. But the programme hardly perpetuates the kind of values to which a good scheme should want to be associated. If there was televised dog fighting, they wouldn’t sponsor that would they?
Nope – in the same way that Carphone Warehouse jumped from Big Brother earlier this year, Learn Direct is trying to get away from the sponsorship of a programme which they should have known was unsuitable from the outset.
Sponsorship can be a very powerful and effective way for an advertiser to get their message across, but it’s key to match your brand with an appropriate programme. I’d be looking very hard at the Learn Direct marketing department if they were responsible for signing off this sponsorship in the first place.
* Obviously, as ever, these views represent my personal views, and not necessarily those of my employer.