Garden Competition Broke Sponsorship Code, Rules ITC
The ITC has ruled that ITV1’s flagship daytime show This Morning breached two sections of the Code of Programme Sponsorship during programmes broadcast at the end of April this year.
A complaint was received regarding a series of “specials” entitled “This Morning Transform Your Garden” during which a public garden on the Thames was given a makeover. The sections also included a viewer competition to win a shed containing garden equipment, donated by Homebase.
One of the rules breached by the programme states: “Prizes should be described in an informational non-promotional manner. Where editorially justified, there may be two mentions of one brand, or one mention each of two brands, in connection with prizes in gameshows or viewer competitions.” The other states “In viewer competitions, the brand mention(s) may only be given when details of how to enter are given.”
The programme was found, on various occasions, to have mentioned the brand name or shown the brand logo separately to competition details and to have mentioned the name more than twice. The programme makers, Granada, accepted that errors had occurred, blaming the pressures of live broadcasting and a technical problem, but the ITC upheld this aspect of the complaint.
Another part of the complaint referred to the fact that a feature on “How to build your shed”, using the Homebase shed, was followed directly by the competition. Granada argued that this was editorially justified and the ITC, noting that the brand name was not mentioned during the feature, agreed, but “were concerned that the use of prizes for editorial items, particularly when placed between two viewer competitions with brand references, could appear to be unduly promotional” and “reminded the broadcaster to exercise extreme caution when considering the degree of exposure given to branded prizes in future”.
Granada: 020 7620 1620 www.granadamedia.com ITC: 020 7306 7743 www.itc.org.uk
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