The Knives Are Out

As a business owner or marketing manager you want to be certain that you're investing your advertising dollars wisely and stitching up a deal with a popular television show is a good way of having your brand associated with something everyone's talking about.

But it does become fraught with risks.

The good:

Australian Master Chef, the reality TV franchise from the UK has been a hit with local viewers - so much so that perennial third place getter, Network Ten has bumped one time leaders Nine into third place.

The reason for Master Chef's ascendancy is fairly simple to explain:

It's an increased interest in 'home based' activities as a result of uncertain economic times, combined with a competition show that isn't based on exploiting dysfunctional people exhibiting the worst of human nature (like Big Brother).

"I wouldn't discount Big Brother coming back at some point, never say never, but on this show there is less of the aggressive or nasty television," (Ten's chief programming officer David) Mott says.

"Without a question (aspirational television) is what people want. We were amazed that people trying out for this show have great careers but what they are doing isn't their love, being a chef is."

It seems like the audience agrees, with last Sunday's show screening to an audience of 1.96 million. Not bad investment.

The bad:

Funnily enough, also screening on Network Ten is stalwart of late night television, David Letterman.

Advertisers might be forgiven for thinking that they might be pretty safe with the experienced Dave but over the past few weeks the host has been hammered with complains after his ill-considered show opening monologue:

On June 8th 2009 Mr. Letterman "joked" that a female Governor of the United States is "slutty" and worse still, "joked" about her 14 year-old daughter and statutory rape by an adult baseball player. He continued his slander of this young girl during his June 9th show, likening her to a prostitute.

Advertisers on the show were quick to review the value of their advertising spend and big names such as Southwest Airlines and the Embassy Hotel chain have withdrawn their advertising from the show.

The controversy over the comments has given Letterman's show its biggest boost in years but still couldn't beat its rival The Tonight Show in a contest it has been consistently losing for a year.

The lesson? Know your audience and know the program you earmark for your advertising dollar and remember that in this Internet age, it doesn't take a lot of effort for disgruntled viewers to make their voices heard.