ABC pulls Gruen Transfer segment
The ABC has for the first time ruled that a segment of The Gruen Transfer cannot go to air, after deciding that an ad created for The Pitch segment was inappropriate.
Despite the segment having already been shot in front of a live audience, the broadcaster later decided it could not be shown on tonight’s show.
Instead, viewers will tonight be directed to a website where they can see a discussion around the item.
The work – created by Adam Hunt for The Foundry, where it emerged last night that he had left the job after two months – contrasts other forms of discrimination with jokes about fat people.
Mumbrella has seen the ad. Shot in black and white, it features close ups of people telling three extremely offensive jokes:
How do black women fight crime? They have abortions
How do you stop a poofter from drowning? You take you foot off his head
What’s the difference between Santa Claus and a jew? Santa Claus goes down the chimney
Then the fourth joke is:
Why did God create alcohol? So fat chicks could get a root
The message then says: “Discrimination comes in all shapes and sizes.”
The ABC’s director of television Kim Dalton issued a statement confirming the item had been pulled . He said:
“The Pitch segment from The Foundry was delivered to ABC TV just prior to the record. The episode was reviewed the following day and the decision made that the broadcast of The Pitch segment would breach ABC Editorial Policies.
Discussion was subsequently held to decide how to re-cut The Pitch sequence in the absence of The Foundry segment. Additional material was shot a fortnight later and the revised episode is to screen tomorrow night.
The intention of the segment was to explore issues around discrimination towards people who are obese. However, when we viewed this particular pitch we felt that some of our viewers could be offended by it and find it insensitive and in some cases quite hurtful.
Broadcasting the segment would have resulted in a breach of ABC Editorial Policies.We believe that it is possible to tackle difficult issues such as discrimination through humour or satire in ways which can be controversial, confronting and challenging. However, doing so is difficult and we believe that this piece of work missed its mark.It is also a matter of context. The Gruen Transfer is a fast moving entertainment program. The short pitch segment does not allow a full debate of a very complex issue.
However, the ABC does recognise the serious intentions of the agency which made the segment and has agreed to the segment being presented on an independent website within the context of an explanation and a 15 minute debate on the issue.”
Hunt was invited back to the studio for the online-only discussion, which was filmed without a live audience. In the debate, Sampson tells Hunt: “I don’t think it’s brave. I don’t think you need to offend one group to help another.”
The story was broken in this morning’s Sydney Morning Herald.
Hunt has an award-winning track record of work on anti-discrimination campaigns. During his time with Saatchi & Saatchi in the UK , he worked on a celebrated 1995 Commission for Racial Equality campaign suggesting that the only people whose brains are smaller are racists.
Ina guest post for Mumbrella, Hunt said: “It’s ironic that an idea that’s clearly against discrimination of any kind is already arousing ignorant and ill-informed criticism in the media by some who haven’t yet seen it.”
Update: Here’s the ad:
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Racist or not I don’t know. However , on the whole you are born black, gay or Jewish. You’re not born fat, you just get fat. No comparison
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Will withhold comment until I’ve seen it I suppose!
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Spunky – I believe that you are completely incorrect. There are many reasons people come in all shapes and sizes, and biology leaves some predisposed to being bigger than others. Lots of reasons contribute to this – Thyroid issues, metabolic conditions, parentage etc. To say that we are all born equal in terms of our weight is a misunderstanding of the basic biological facts. And ‘fat’ is a difficult term to quantify – it is often utterly subjective, and comes loaded with bias. Obesity is medically calculable, and another issue completely.
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Interesting that Gruen is under this pressure – after panellists put the ASCA advertisement under the spotlight for a similar reason … i.e. that it used (inappropriate) humour to make a point.
Clearly, this approach gets a debate going on sensitive issues. But just as clearly it puts the heat on those who create the ad .
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When I click on the link vimeo says this is a private video, but the statement says we can watch it…?
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Hi KJ,
I think they’ll be making the video live once the show’s gone out tonight.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Zoe – this is true. However I believe that for all the reasons people are overweight, be it DNA, thyroid problems, metabolism, or plain old over-eating, medical research/nutritionists etc have tried to find a solution.
I’m not aware of any legitimate medical professionals who have tried to find a cure for being black, gay or Jewish
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Confront the Complacency using Spoof techniques – I LOVE IT!
Gruen Transfer is great.
Not sure if they will get better publicity from the controversial nature of this… which would in itself be a positive.
Food for Thought.
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Spunky – I wasn’t debating the statement you made that you are born ‘black, gay or Jewish’. I was merely debating your fallacious claim that you are not born ‘fat’.
And over the years MANY legitimate health professionals have carried out treatments meant to ‘cure’ people of homosexuality. These were carried out in Australian state hospital systems right up until recent history. Electric Shock therapy was one of the many ‘solutions’ offered by our medical establishment. Unfortunately this legitimate medical establishment was socialised with the same prejudices as the rest of the population, and many gay people (born gay, as we both seem to agree) were discriminated against in an attempt to ‘cure’ their ‘illness’. Terrible times that many who are alive today in Australia would be able to recall.
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Pork…
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I’m well aware of these “professionals” – not legitimate in my point of view
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Adam Hunt doesn’t work at The Foundry anymore, he was there for only 6 weeks.
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NEVER MIND THE FAT GIRLS JOKE THE ONLY PEOPLE NEEDING F….ING ARE THE PRODUCERS AND CAST OF THIS HEAP OFSH.T
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What an intelligent comment Ray. Clearly you’ve been burnt
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I was in the audience that night. So I have seen the ad in question.
It is pretty full on. The audience were all very quiet after it was shown.
I personally think the ad was in poor taste. But that’s just mu two cents.
Nick.
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so much for freedom of speech
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any1 know where i can see this add, like on youtube or anything
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Hi Paddy,
It looks like the site has gone down – perhaps more traffic than they could cope with. It should be at http://www.antiprejudicead.net/
Cheers,
Tim
I have to say it was much worse sitting through that child abuse commercial weeks ago. Surely that’s much worse? Well the link doesn’t work for me but judging by the above quotes from the advert I think it’s nowhere near as bad as the child abuse one
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http://www.antiprejudicead.net/landing.asp it had the wrong link.
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… i really hadnt read all the comments… someone beat me to it.
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Been trying to website for 15 mins and I think the server is overloaded. I’m coming back tomorrow to have a look.
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First time watching the teev that I’ve actually wanted to get up and do something as a result. ie check the website… no luck with the url, but anyhoo…I say more controversy!
If it weren’t for the lad who made the ad this would be yet ANOTHER incredibly bland evening of telly.
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here here anon!
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Just goes to show how uneducated creatives are. Adam must not be a very nice guy. Surely he should realise that the message he is putting out there is reinforcing the bigotry he says he’s trying to stop. He knows how to win awards. Does he know anything about people – absolutely not.
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I think the ad is hard hitting and effective… however to understand more I wanted to learn about Adam Hunt’s history… Reading the foundry site referred me to Adam’s online tshirt company “Goatboy” – Viewing some of the religious, fat chick, war related, tshirts on there made me wonder how much credibility he has to preach “anti-discrimination” when most of the designs are based on discrimination… yes, he delivered to the brief, but I can no longer believe the “discrimination is ugly” comments..
food for thought… Wouldn’t mind hearing comment on that…
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i cant watch it?
private video?
any idea on how to see it?
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w
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To Spunky1972; that’s exactly why they thought of this ad. Because of people like you. You’re missing the point. It’s to do with DISCRIMINATION, not FAT.
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Andrew, that’s a really interesting point you’ve just made. I just checked out the Goatboy site and saw the “King’s cross police now targeting: Fat Chicks” shirt.
Not very impressive, what a shame.
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You know what, I actually think there might be something else behind that shirt. Perhaps attacking the Kings Cross Police? Just a thought though.
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The shirt which is referenced is very similar to a sign that did the rounds via email a number of years ago.. http://www.reallyfunnypictures...../pic20.php
Goatboy’s just ads it to Kings Cross I assume to give it more relevance…
It wasn’t just that Fat Chicks shirt that caught my eye but the shirts that cover “ugly” discrimination or may indeed be viewed that way by those who find particular shirts offensive… Obama in Pyjamas, Who Would Jesus Bomb?, Princess Di, etc..
I still do wonder whether they had a chuckle when producing the ad and then fiercely backed it up after coming under fire or whether they were dead set serious form the word go and believe that all discrimination and perhaps even black humour is unacceptable.
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Hi Andrew – you raise a very interesting point which is worthy of discussion.
Creative people are often asked to argue both sides of a proposition – for example to do ads for a Toyota Prius one week, and a Hummer the next. To use an personal example, when I worked at Y&R Amsterdam there was a 2 week period where my two active briefs were a campaign for Chesterfield cigarettes, and an anti-smoking initiative for a Dutch hospital.
So while I see that it appears hypocritical to do a Fat Chicks T-shirt for my Goatboy site – and then argue to end shape discrimination on the other, it’s merely a reflection of the nature of the conflicting briefs that creative people get.
My epiphany during this process was genuine, & that happened when I laughed at a mate’s fat chick joke after too many beers in a pub. I had no bloody idea that there was such a thing as “Shape Discrimination” until I got this brief. It was talking to me.
So I wrote an idea that made me reconsider my own feelings towards telling a fat chick joke. It touched Will Anderson as well.
I’ve read about 20 of 42 pages of comments on The Gruen Transfer site, and I was blown away by the amount of comments that say that it’s made them reconsider telling a fat chick joke. So in my mind it’s worked – to get people to stop & think about prejudice.
The logical extension of your argument would make it hypocritical for creative people to do ads for Coca Cola, and then organic juice.
So damn me if you wish Richard, but I don’t see an issue.
But thanks for raising it & giving me an opportunity to respond.
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Thanks for the response Adam, as I stated earlier I think it was on brief and an extremely effective ad. Even those who were hit by the shock factor still had to stop and think about discrimination and then even lead in to discussion about it. In my view it achieved what it needed to and I respect that you’ve backed it up with the justification of the idea behind the creative process.
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This is a vicious PR stunt pulled by ABC marketing in an attempt to pull headlines and reverse dropping viewer ratings.
Submission to The Pitch is 3-4 weeks in advance of airing – why was this not nipped in the bud straight away before running off to the press.
Our agency had to re-submit our initial proposal – so this is nothing new to the shows producers (or ABC)
I feel sorry for Adam and The Foundry in this instance – you guys were hung out to dry.
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Hi JM,
I don’t think the ABC did stitch them up.
There was no PR push beforehand. The statement from Kim Dalton I quote above was only available if you rang up to ask the question. There was no general press release.
As far as I know, the only pre-publicity those involved in the show did, was Wil Anderson referred to it in a tweet the day before, which presumably is what alerted the SMH, who were first to break it.
Also, don’t forget this was a two-stage process – with the production company, and ABC. My guess is that the production company wanted to show it, and the decision not to was the ABCs, which will be why it wasn’d dealt with at script stage.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
whether or not it is a vicious PR stunt, an act of ingenious creativity or simply a spoof that went too far. The fact of the matter for me is – why are we all so passionate about this that we are reading and writing comments.
I cannot wait to see THE PITCH for an upcoming event that I am organising – an international climate justice fast! to coincide with copenhagen UN talks.
Confront, Create, Adjust – Do we need chaos to create change?
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The pitch last night must have been bad, because the New Zealand woman who disgraced herself with her joke about ‘dogs’ being ‘done’ by drunken men on a beer boat was as bad as it should get. Clearly she’s never heard of the feminist revolution, or of women not wishing to be called ‘chicks’, ‘birds’ or ‘dogs’. Also we don’t care to hear jokes about rape – it was bad enough learning about abuse of women on Four Corners this week. Beware of the enemy within. Only one member of the Gruen Transfer panel looked suitably embarrassed, to me, by her offensive remark. And yes, I will (and did) switch off if I don’t like it.
Geraldine Wooller
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As much as I hate to say this, I think that the ABC did the right thing. Not because the ad shouldn’t be seen. It should. It wouldn’t work as a TV ad, but as a statement, it’s brilliant.
But it shouldn’t have been shown in The Gruen Transfer, because the pacing of the show wouldn’t have done it justice. The online video was one minute of ad followed by 15 minutes of discussion, and the discussion is what made the segment work.
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Thank you Adam Hunt,
Brief: We are needing an ad campaign for a comedy series on national television.
Result: Lets show people telling offensive racist jokes, and somehow link this to discrimination of people who enjoy food a bit too much.
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MKS – so because it’s a comedy series, the brief shouldn’t be taken seriously? The show is “a show about advertising, how it works, and how it works on us” – it’s never been said that it’s only a comedy show out to make people laugh.
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How does advertising work? How does it work on us?
For information to get from sender to receiver it needs to be A. relevant. B. Organised and C. Entertaining or engaging.
So, are we more likely to think about discrimination because of this ad rather than the more soft approaches to addressing the issue.
It’s a bit like the smoking ads and the TAC ads – confronting!
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The ad is offensive to fat people, blacks, homosexuals and jews – end of story… terrible ad – terrible concept and terrible by the show to put these agencies in this position….
what a joke….
let’s move on and not give this topic anymore air…
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Would just like to know if Adam Hunt has actually watched the Gruen Transfer, and whether he knows the context of the show???
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Shai.
The ad is offensive to those groups of people it a) they have already put themselves in that category, and b) if they interpret the spoof to be a literal dig at them and not an attempt to disseminate the injustices of our society, and the lack of basic human rights. It was not sponsored, it was not made by an racist or otherwise socially inacceptible group.
Clearly we live in communities that fails to address issues of discrimination (whatever shape or size it is)- therefore we cannot put this to rest and move on. That would be a clear indication of denial of the oppressive nature of our society, and thus be contributing to the very discrimination that this ad was appealing to.
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Shai,
How is this offensive to those groups?
The ad does not condone, it condemns the discrimination of these people.
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Hear, hear matt!
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What a pathetic, politically correct world we live in where you can’t even tell a sick joke anymore. I personally find that fat joke funny. Humour is mostly about shock so it’s often the most shocking jokes that are the funniest. Does anybody remember the ‘baby’ jokes of the 80s? Of course they would never have aired on the TV but at least we can (and will continue to) tell some really sick jokes in privacy. As far as I can see, free speech has gone backwards over the last decade because the human psyche is becoming weaker by the minute. I would have let the Gruen segment air because it is not offensive when taken in context.
Sticks and stones people, sticks and stones.
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A very good piece of management by Dalton et al under pressure in my opinion. Airing the ad and the panel discussion on the net has allowed a conversation about the issues to play out. Evidence of the benefit to society in having multiple forms of media.
Adam says you can hear these sorts of jokes in a pub but putting them on TV gives them them oxygen and a veil of acceptability. The backlash that would follow would draw a lot of attention to the issue but at the cost of offending a lot of people.
I think the ad could be effective on TV if the other discriminatory jokes do not deliver a punch line – only use the punch line in the fat joke. But this version belongs on the Internet.
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Oooohhhhhh….I can see why the clean minded purists in the ABC didn’t let it go to air.
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Personally I can clearly see that the ad was using those jokes as a medium to get across a message, one that I feel totally justifies the use of offensive material.
I would like to point out, however, that sadly many many Australians would watch that ad and say ‘hehe…hehe…FAT CHICKS ARE UGLY’. The people who really need to get the message of this ad are exactly the people who’s pathetic brains couldn’t possibly comprehend the real point the makers were trying to communicate. The whole point of an ad is that it gets a message across to a specific group of people – this ad would fail to do that.
I would also like to ad my own personal view on obesity – I have no sympathy for fat people. Young, old, ones with a family history of obesity, even ones with medical conditions. No. Sympathy. At. All. My mother is fat, and I have no sympathy for her (in that respect). Eat better, do more exercise. Stop whining, for the love of all things holy, and do your bit for the health system and the planet – lose weight. If offensive fat jokes is what it takes to get you to wake up to yourselves then so be it. Btw, have you ever seen a fat vegetarian or vegan? Think about that.
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I thought the ad was terrible, it needed a Kiwi joke…
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Excellent point Kitty…. when all is said and done targeting through the mass medium of TV exposes this message to not only those whose opinion it could change it has the potential to add currency to the bigotry of those who never will by giving them a chuckle at some lame old jokes along the way
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Several CB Bloggers have pointed out that the spot is rather similar to a commercial created by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney for the United Nations six years ago. It was Nobby’s first spot as CD of Saatchi’s and was directed by Tim Gibbs. http://www.campaignbrief.com/2.....amili.html
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Clare Easton
14 May 09
4:05 pm …hear hear!!
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