Rather like the long-suffering wife of a philandering politician, Carphone Warehouse had originally vowed to stand by its sponsorship of Channel 4's Big Brother despite the Jade Goody racism row. Now it seems it wants nothing more to do with the programme. Why the change of heart?
Sponsorship has many advantages as a form of advertising. Pick the right event or TV programme to associate with and your brand can bask in its reflected glory, borrowing its values and tone of voice and saying, in effect, "look who I'm best friends with". Sponsorship of television programmes, which has grown massively since it first appeared 25 years ago, is good value too. Minute for minute it is cheaper than spot advertising. And with programmes such as Big Brother which, when on air, run every day of the week, an un-missable presence for your brand can be achieved.
All of which is fine and dandy - until something goes wrong. As David Cameron showed only a few days ago, even a reference to racism is to be roundly punished in these hyper-sensitive times. His security spokesman Patrick Mercer was summarily axed for suggesting racism was endemic in the army.
In the case of Celebrity Big Brother 2007, it wasn't an oblique reference to racism, it was the howling abuse of Shilpa Shetty on primetime TV. In the furore which followed, Channel 4 was roundly criticised for "condoning" racist behaviour and its management condemned for failing to pull the show off air at once. Only a few measured voices dared to suggest that perhaps Channel 4 had actually done the cause of racial harmony some good by showing the taunts by Goody and her acolytes in their full obnoxiousness.
It took the super-cool Shetty herself (now such a paragon she has even met the Queen), once freed from the Big Brother house, to play down the episode by saying she thought it had more to do with old-fashioned bullying than racism. By then, of course, the damage was done and Carphone Warehouse understandably pulled its sponsorship off air while it waited to see what would happen next. Last week it made its diplomatic excuses and finally abandoned its three-year support of the show.
MediaGuardian
