e.tv's unbridled dalliance with shrill advertiser funded TV shows in prime time is set to continue with Fresh Living TV sponsored by Pick n Pay set to start on Monday, 6 September for 13 episodes on the channel.
E.tv is once again turning over 13 half hours of its prime time real estate this September to a commercial advertiser, with Pick n Pay's marketing director Jonathan Ackerman referring to Fresh Living TV in a press release as ''far more than an advertiser-funded TV show''. The same press release refers to Fresh Living TV forming part of ''Pick n Pay's new, consumer-focused approach to advertising'' and the show is called not good television or anything remotely connected to TV, but an ''extended branded entertainment platform''.
This latest e.tv advertiser funded show, referred to as ''a fusion of the lifestyle and reality TV genres'' will present ''everyday domestic disasters, with solutions provided by Pick n Pay's Fresh Living team of experts'' - no doubt using well-placed Pick n Pay product placement. Fresh Living editor Justine Drake will also be inserted into this ''extended branded entertainment platform'' opportunity and appear on Fresh Living TV ''providing delicious, affordable cooking solutions'' - all of course prepared with only blatantly placed Pick n Pay food products.
When TV stations like e.tv persist in turning over television time to advertisers in the form of advertiser funded shows that they brand as their own, the result is often crap. TV producers make television, not advertisers. Advertisers' main aim is to sell. And sadly e.tv seems unable to resist the lure of these selling sirens.
