ITC Upholds Advert Separation Complaint Against Channel 4

Channel 4 has fallen foul of the Independent Television Commission (ITC) for allowing an advert for Subaru cars to be shown across the whole centre break of motoring programme Driven, presented by Penny Mallory and Mike Brewer (left).

The advert, which aired in February this year, took the form of a pastiche of motoring programmes like Driven. Channel 4 had decided that because the pastiche was general rather than specific to the programme, and was also identified as a advertisement, it did not breach rules regarding separation of advertisements.

Two viewers queried whether this was the case and the ITC decided it did not accept the “very fine distinction that C4 wished to draw between an imitation or parody of a particular programme and a pastiche of a programme type.” It added that differences between the programme and the advert were not material.

The commission decided that the advertisement had breached Rule 5 of the Code of Advertising Standards and Practice and upheld the complaints, although it conceded that rules requiring adverts in a programme style to be identified as such on screen had not been broken. It was pointed out that rules regarding the separation of advertisements are primarily in place to protect the editorial integrity of programmes.

ITC: 020 7255 3000