After a week of furore which grabbed negative headlines internationally, the UK’s Carphone Warehouse has pulled the plug on an estimated UK£3m per year sponsorship of the country’s leading reality TV format. The move, which admittedly brought the company some incidental free publicity along the way, follows a row over alleged racism among ‘celebrity’ contestants on the ‘Big Brother’ programme.

CW co-founder Charles Dunstone was reported as saying: "Our concern has rapidly mounted about the broadcast behaviour of individuals within the Big Brother house. We are totally against all forms of racism and bullying and indeed this behaviour is entirely at odds with the brand values of The Carphone Warehouse. As a result we feel that as long as this continues we are unable to associate our brand with the programme."

This begs the question of why the company was so content for so long to stand by in its support of a programme format which majors on sex, voyeurism, endless swearing and inter-personal conflict and relies in large part on the low IQ both of contestants and the show’s audience. Presumably this was hitherto believed to reflect the interests of the company’s existing and target customer bases.

Rumours that CW is to re-direct its sponsorship budget towards the recently established World Pro-Celebrity Nude Mud-Wrestling Championships are patently not true, however.
Jim Chalmers