My TV Pick--The Gruen Transfer
Quality tv is pretty hard to come by at the moment but The Gruen Transfer is definitely a shining light. The show exposes all the sordid techniques of the advertising industry. It gets its name from the phenomenon created in shopping malls where people are coerced into "scripted disorientation", inducing them to consume.
There is a panel of marketing experts that deconstruct various ads and you get the impression that these are people with real power to influence people's opinions. As this writer in The Age highlights, it's kind of like a bunch of magicians revealing their tricks.
The show is a good laugh as it has a good dig at the absurdity of the whole industry. The most interesting segment is "The Pitch" where two agencies compete to produce an ad to market an impossible product like whale meat, plastic bags and... The Democrats. They are then judged by the panel who scrutinise their selling techniques. The best thing is that while it's informative, The Gruen Transfer is also pretty funny. Although it's taken a few shows for the banter between panel members to warm up, they can be very entertaining.
The show also encourages people to make their own ads and provides the tools on the website which they then show as the credits roll.
It seems that not everyone is so positive about the show. This Crikey blogger points out that everyone on the panel is from the advertising industry and therefore uncritical of the medium and that the ABC is basically running free advertising.
This guy does have a point that they could get some more diverse perspectives from different panel members who don't have a vested interest in the industry.
There is a panel of marketing experts that deconstruct various ads and you get the impression that these are people with real power to influence people's opinions. As this writer in The Age highlights, it's kind of like a bunch of magicians revealing their tricks.
The show is a good laugh as it has a good dig at the absurdity of the whole industry. The most interesting segment is "The Pitch" where two agencies compete to produce an ad to market an impossible product like whale meat, plastic bags and... The Democrats. They are then judged by the panel who scrutinise their selling techniques. The best thing is that while it's informative, The Gruen Transfer is also pretty funny. Although it's taken a few shows for the banter between panel members to warm up, they can be very entertaining.
The show also encourages people to make their own ads and provides the tools on the website which they then show as the credits roll.
It seems that not everyone is so positive about the show. This Crikey blogger points out that everyone on the panel is from the advertising industry and therefore uncritical of the medium and that the ABC is basically running free advertising.
This guy does have a point that they could get some more diverse perspectives from different panel members who don't have a vested interest in the industry.
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