Channel 4’s new The Girlie Show has been slammed by the public, according to research conducted by the McCann-Erickson/Universal advertising group.
Only 10% of women aged (16+) who watched last Friday’s programme will bother to tune in this Friday; and only 4% of men (16+) will switch channels this Friday night. The Girlie Show, in the slot vacated by The Word has BBC2’s Fantasy Football League scheduled against it. Regular features of the Girlie Show include Toilet Talk and Viewers’ Husbands.
While 53% of women questioned had made a point of tuning in, (32% of men), the most favourable reactions towards the show came from younger women, (16-24), the target audience for Channel 4.
54% thought it was a programme for extroverts, while 38% felt it was offensive to women. Only 23% felt it showed “modern woman” in a positive light, 19% thought it was aimed at feminists; however, 27% of this younger group identified with the programme, agreeing with the statement “It’s a show for people like me”. Among 16-24 year olds males, 74% felt the programme was offensive to men, the same percentage as those who felt that it was offensive to women.
Trista Grant, managing director of Univeral McCann said that despite the findings of the research she felt that some advertisers would be attracted to place commercials in the programme. She commented, “Personally, I thought the programme was disappointing after all the hype.” Tracy Lovatt, a director of McCann-Erickson agreed, “Personally, I thought it fell short of the mark”, but did concede that, “There are precious few programmes targeted at young women, and C4, as ever, should be applauded for trying to extend the boundaries.”
A quick poll of the MediaTel office shows some divided opinions; of those who actually watched the show, the women admitted they would tune in again, (most popular was the item on men’s underpants), whilst the men expressed a preference for any other channel.
