±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Brands including Boots and Renault, which advertised in and around

last week's controversial Brass Eye TV show, have hit out at Channel 4

about the lack of advance information given to them on the nature of the

show.

Their comments came after the show, which set out to satirise the

media's treatment of paedophilia, drew more than 2000 complaints to

Channel 4, more than 700 complaints to the ITC and was denounced by

culture secretary Tessa Jowell.

Boots advertised in the end break of the programme on July 26. A Boots

spokeswoman said: "We feel we were misled by Channel 4 over the tone of

the programme. We were led to believe it was to concentrate on the

media's handling of the topic, not on satirising the topic itself."

Renault advertised in the centre break when the show was repeated on

July 27. Dave Peters, broadcast planning director at its media agency,

Carat, said: "We were not advised by Channel 4 of the content of the

programme."

One other major advertiser that also appeared in one of the centre

breaks, but declined to be identified, said it too had not been informed

of the programme's nature.

However, Channel 4 commercial director Andy Barnes said it had taken the

rare step of ringing agencies and advertisers to advise them of the

hard-hitting nature of Brass Eye, adding that this had only been done

previously for its showing of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of

Christ.

Starcom Motive confirmed that Channel 4 had called to say that a planned

ad spot for Heineken, due to appear in one of the centre breaks, had

been moved due to the controversial nature of the show.

Channel 4's decision to place ad breaks in Brass Eye contrasted with its

decision last year to run Jam, another controversial show fronted by

Brass Eye presenter Chris Morris, without ad breaks for fear of

upsetting advertisers (Marketing, April 13, 2000).