Carphone Warehouse Hangs Up On Big Brother
Channel 4’s reality behemoth, Big Brother, has lost its £3 million a year Carphone Warehouse sponsorship, after the telecoms giant pulled the plug on the deal following the much publicised racism row.
Carphone Warehouse, which has held the sponsorship for three years, pulled all of its sponsorship I-dents from around Celebrity Big Brother in January (see Carphone Warehouse Suspends Celeb Big Bro Sponsorship) in reaction to the negative media coverage of alleged racist bullying in the CBB house (see Duncan Defends Big Brother).
The series wrapped up with the ending producers and the British public had hoped for – bullying victim and Bollywood beauty, Shilpa Shetty, was crowned Queen of the house with 63% of the vote. The show’s finale failed to rate highly, with a mixed picture of viewing figures evident over the course of the series (see Big Bro Finale Crashes Out To Top Gear).
Carphone Warehouse was still contracted to sponsor this summer’s Big Brother series but, following further talks with Channel 4, the company has pulled out of sponsoring the show altogether.
“We constantly review our sponsorship relationships and feel that having suspended the sponsorship during this year’s Celebrity Big Brother, that now is a good time to look at the partnership again,” said Carphone Warehouse.
“We have concluded that the huge publicity around the show and our involvement within that means it is now time to look for an alternative.”
The company still intends to advertise in and around the summer series of Big Brother including taking advertising on the official website. It also intends to continue to commit a “large portion” of its media spend with Channel 4.
During the controversy (a mixed blessing for the broadcaster), Channel 4 heads Andy Duncan and Kevin Lygo defended the issues that erupted, at one point saying the furore was positive as it sparked a wider debate about racism (see Duncan And Lygo Defend Celebrity Big Brother).
However, many commentators were critical of C4 and its bosses, questioning the value of the programme and expressing concern that they did not act to resolve the issues soon enough.
Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 www.channel4.com