★★★★★ 0/5

Airdate: The Pitch

This show about advertising just doesn't strike me as meeting any of the SBS Charter....

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2013-04-29_0130Next week SBS 2 begins a new 8 part factual series, The Pitch, about what it takes to pitch in the advertising world -but I just don’t get why this one has been bought by SBS.

I can’t see it ticking any of the broadcaster’s charter, and to me it feels as self-centred on American commercialism as an episode of Undercover Boss.

Watching two ad agencies pitch for a Subway account was like something better suited to The Apprentice. It seemed to glorify all the crass qualities about multinationals and the pursuit of the  almighty dollar, without much insight or irony. Nobody bothered to comment on the fact that Subway’s global marketing officer was decidedly overweight.

I think if SBS 2 wants to win over more over the ‘thinking’ 20 and 30-somethings it needs cleverer material than this one.

The Pitch is a new eight-part series that goes behind the closed doors of the world of advertising and spotlights the incredible lengths, intense stakes and tight deadlines ad agencies encounter when they take aim at a major new piece of business.

Each week, two of America’s top creative agencies go head to head to win a real campaign from a major brand. The cameras follow as they brainstorm ideas, research brands, and formulate campaigns – with only seven days to prepare their big presentation: the pitch. Reputations, careers, and even their livelihoods are on the line. The competition is real and the stakes are high.

Episode One: Subway
Tracy Wong, one of the founders of WDCW, a Californian based agency, leads his team to Connecticut to pitch to one of the largest potential clients in the world: Subway. WDCW’s competition is McKinney, a powerhouse ad firm based in North Carolina. The Subway campaign is a huge account – both agencies desperately need this piece of business. The assignment entails creating a campaign for Subway’s breakfast menu, specifically targeting 18 to 24-year-olds.

Wednesday, 8 May at 9.35pm on SBS 2

David Knox blogs Eurovision for SBS

4 Responses

  1. SBS is pretty much buying up whatever cheap stuff that could rate something hasn’t been bought by the 3 commercial networks, the ABC and 100 cable channels.

    There are few gems like Borgen which will be watched by 100k people, but when it comes to English language shows there aren’t a lot left.

  2. Does the SBS charter say that every programme has to try and overthrow capitalism and mock fat Americans?

    Anyway the charter does say that they are not supposed to do that same thing as the ABC does, so that should be fine.

    Nearly all of SBS’s content violates the charter. It is supposed to provide foreign language content, promote multiculturalism and not compete with the ABC. Nearly all of it prime-time content is English and SBS is going head-to-head with ABC2.

    But then again the charter is meaningless and its aims impossible. It has a clause that allows them to broadcast in the audience’s preferred language, which is of course English so they can do what-ever the please.

  4. I don’t know David. I’ve enjoyed this series (despite its flaws) because I work in the industry. Suspect it’ll find a small following amongst other ad execs.

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