Avoiding Responsibility

Channel 4, one of the free-to-air broadcasters here in the UK is launching a new channel here soon. As you would expect, there has been a pretty overwhelming adverstising campaign to go along with the launch. But one particular ad has caught my attention.

The new station is aimed at an ‘adult’ audience - think West Wing and Desperate Housewives as opposed to Power Rangers and Spongebob. The lineup includes John Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’, a satirical take on contemporary broadcast news media.

Now I like to think that I am a generous person, and I make this next observation being as generous as I can be. Irony is used sparingly in the advertising industry, and subtlety even less. From my understanding, a propensity for either of these traits will disqualify one from a career in advertising. It is for this reason that I must assume the subtle irony of the ads for ‘The Daily Show’ are in fact an amusing oversight on the part of the advertising agency. What am I talking about?

The ad itself is in most senses an unremarkable one, except for its catchphrase, which declares that the Daily Show with John Stewart is ‘America’s foremost source of made-up news'.

I can't be certain, but I reckon there are a few people at Fox News who would be a bit pissed at seeing that ad. They work damn hard to invent as much 'newstainment' as possible, and here is this upstart British television station claiming that someone else is beating them! But back to my original point: is it conceivable that the advertising people that created this campaign actually intended this irony? Are they that witty and subtle?

You all know where my money is on this one.