Binging for charity

Ross Fisher wonders how Charity and debauchery can coincide

12 pints later

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RED Nose Day has come around once again, and thousands of people have put time and effort into raising millions for Comic Relief. Leading this effort as always was the BBC, with a broad blanket of programs across every license fee-funded medium. Perhaps the most interesting show was the as-yet unexploded bomb that was the BBC Three special.

BBC Three was launched in 2003, and in the evening borrows the terrestrial bandwidth that is CBBC during the day. It barely received government approval in the first place, and has frequently come under fire from people such as The Times’ Camilla Cavendish.

The special program featured the cast of its mainstay shows Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and Coming of Age – the sixth form sitcom – along with a motley crew of other BBC Three stars. The majority of the show took place in a pub where, even though references were made to the sixth formers’ ages, they were not questioned.

The focus of the show revolved around a contest between the three groups mentioned above. This contest required the teams to put forward members to take part in three challenges: a ‘bitch off’, a ‘drink off’ and a ‘flirt off’. The ‘bitch off’ ended with bullying and tears, the ‘drink off’ ended with the winner collapsing, and the ‘flirt off’ ended with a young girl asking Will Mellor’s character ‘Shall we go outside, and you can put your dick in me?’ She was awarded 10 out of 10. After a winner had been declared, the show closed with a musical number whose main lyric was ‘stop thinking, start drinking.’

I personally am not keen on hunting for witches, and I can certainly see the funny side of the show. However, I cannot help but wonder who it was that thought that this would be a good idea for a charity broadcast, even more so who pitched it to the BBC editorial body, and even more so what was going through the mind of said editors when they brought back a smiling ‘yes’ verdict.

The BBC should have been wary of releasing a show like this. After all it hasn’t been all too long since comedian Russell Brand and talk-show host Jonathon Ross found themselves on the wrong end of a media storm. Other high visibility broadcasters such as DJ Chris Moyles and the hosts of Top Gear (a life-size cardboard cut out of Jeremy Clarkson appears frequently in ‘Coming of age’) have regularly come under fire for inappropriate comments, and all this is in a context where the BBC has been accused of ‘dumbing down’.

It might be true to say that they are appealing more to their target demographic, and even to say that such an open-minded approach to potentially insulting material is refreshing in an age that seems to be preoccupied with protocol and political correctness. Nonetheless, the question remains whether this is the appropriate message for the BBC to be sending out as a charity special. I’m sure we’ll find out one way the other soon enough. 

Sex or music?

Andy Lo takes a look at the evolving music industry in comparison to say, oh i don’t know, SEX!

Would you rather this?

Would you rather go without music or sex for a week? Astonishingly over 60 per cent of young people would rather go without the horizontal action. Amongst 16 – 19 year olds the figure rises to 70 per cent. The compelling results were uncovered by Marrakesh Records and Human Capital who conducted the survey on 1,000 15-24 year-olds. The study, designed to find out the importance of music to young people and their changing attitudes towards paying for it, also found that 70 per cent did not feel guilty for illegally downloading music. In addition 61 per cent also felt they should not have to pay for the music they listen to.

The findings are remarkable. I know for a fact that if I was asked to give up either music or sex I would most definitely choose the former rather than the latter. Yet the findings also highlight just how important the role of music still is in the lives of youths. Friendships are formed over music, nights out revolve around it, and careers are started because of it.

The methods in which people gratify their need for music has changed over the years and is still constantly evolving; the buying of physical mediums such as the CD is declining as music is increasingly being bought and downloaded online. It seems likely that in the not too distant future physical copies will cease to exist all together and all music will be available and bought online – a virtual jukebox if you will.

Of course, along with this, illegal downloading through file sharing networks has also been rife and has been for a number of years. I, myself, am guilty of having downloaded tracks in the past without paying for them and I am sure a good majority of people will raise their hands when asked the same question. Illegal music downloading costs music companies millions every year and the UK government has attempted to tackle this ever-present modern problem. Recently a friend of mine received a letter from Sky Broadband warning him that his internet could be cut off if he continued to download pirated music from an unnamed website.

Or this?

The constantly evolving nature of the music industry has raised questions on the value of music. In the survey, the average price that respondents thought was fair to pay for a CD album was just £6.58. For a download album the average fell to £3.91 and for a download single the average was 39p – this was almost half the price of a track on iTunes. But perhaps music should not even cost anything. The ‘commodification’ of music has only really existed since companies began catching on to the idea that selling physical copies of recordings was profitable. Before then music was treated as art form – simply an expression of human of creativity that was available to all and not a money making product that could be bought and sold. It seems to me that the selling of music these days is simply serving to line the pockets of the suits in the music industry, many of whom have no real understanding of music.

Record companies, in my opinion, are being rendered obsolete by technology. Many artists are increasingly turning to the internet to distribute their music (often for free) with many choosing only to make money off other methods such as gigging. In 2007 Radiohead released their album In Rainbows as a free download citing that it was up to fans to decide whether they should pay not. In addition websites such as Myspace have proved incredibly useful for many unsigned bands to gain popularity. The Arctic Monkeys achieved a phenomenally huge fan base through the internet before they were even signed.

The music industry is constantly progressing and I expect we will see more major developments in the next few years. As for sex; let’s hope that will survive for at least a few more years.

Racy Virgin causes problems

Andy Lo thinks people should lighten up

SEX sells. The advertising companies know it, we the consumers know it. Yet somehow the new enthralling Virgin Atlantic advertising campaign, which marks the airline’s 25^th anniversary, has managed to garner 29 complaints. The advert, set in 1984, opens with a newspaper vendor selling the story of a miner’s strike whilst a Yuppie carrying a brick mobile phone converses with a business partner. As the young businessman enters the airport he is stopped short by the dazzling sight of an entourage of gorgeous airhostesses dressed in vivid red accompanying a pilot. They walk through a dull coloured airport to the soundtrack of Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and seemingly amass the attention of all males in the crowd. One man, eating a burger, accidently manages to drop ketchup all over himself whilst watching the parade. As it draws to a close one businessman says to his colleague ‘I need to change my job’ whilst the other replies ‘I need to change my ticket’. The advert finally signs off with the line ’25 Years Still Red Hot’.

The majority of the complaints that the ASA received stated that the advert objectified women and presented a stereotypical view of the genders. The ASA has already ruled in favor of Virgin Atlantic who stated, ‘we considered that most viewers would understand that the ad presented exaggerated stereotypical views of the early 1980s and played upon perceived attitudes of that time in a humorous way.’

I am in accordance with the ASA ruling. It is apparent to me, and the majority of people who watched the advert, that Virgin’s objective was to parody a bygone era using hyperbolized stereotypes in an amusing and entertaining fashion. Its nature was very clearly tongue-in-cheek and so I believe that those that complained have missed the point and need to lighten up.

Yet even if the advert had been set in the present day I would have still taken a dim view of those that contacted the ASA. Using attractive men and women to sell products and services is nothing new. It is a marketing tool that has worked extremely well for some companies and I feel as long as it stays within the confines of good taste I do not see any cause for concern. I for one, will remember this advert a lot longer than I will remember any of the British Airways commercials.

If we are to question the apparently sexist attitudes of using attractive women in advertising then perhaps we should also query the similar methods in which men are sometimes portrayed. The well-known Diet Coke advert, for example, features a hunky lift engineer being ogled by a group of excited office women; whilst a recent commercial for Aero showed a half naked Jason Lewis (from Sex and the City) strutting around eating a chocolate seductively. I wonder how many complaints of sexism were registered in those cases. In addition the Virgin Atlantic advert also included a handsome male pilot, who exchanges glances with a woman in the airport crowd. This seemed to be completely ignored by those who complained.

When compared to European advert culture, where racy commercialism is the norm, the Virgin Atlantic campaign appears pale in comparison. The 29 people who complained to the ASA would probably have a heart attack if they watched continental television. I recently viewed a Danish advert for Siemens on the Internet, which showed hundreds of naked women skydiving out of a plane. It was selling washing machines. Whilst I am not insinuating that we become as permissive as Europe when it comes to showing sex and nudity on television, I believe the overly politically correct disposition that a few individuals possess needs to be dropped and a more liberal attitude adopted.

I just think that Virgin Atlantic’s advert is, like the airhostesses, a golden ray of light in this dark, gloomy time of economic recession. It is just a shame that air travel as no longer as glamorous or as exciting as it was depicted.