Did The Gruen Transfer Live Up to Its Own Advertising?

Last night saw the debut of the much anticipated show about advertising 'The Gruen Transfer'. The faux ad campaign had generated plenty of buzz (and complaints) and with Andrew Denton behind the show, there was no shortage of PR or expectation. In short, it promised plenty. The question is, did it deliver? In our humble opinions, no, not really. To be fair, it's not really aimed at ad people, but rather the general public, so it's difficult for us to know what the uninitiated thought, but for us, it was simply 'OK'.

In the lead up press to the show, Denton acknowledged advertising people could be "critical and bitchy" and so the ad people who participated were quite brave to be involved. And he was absolutely right. We can be critical and bitchy. And they were brave to be involved. It has to be said, these 'panel' style shows work best when the people on them are genuinely funny. And as clever as some of the ad people on there are, comedians they're not. For us, watching people trying to be funny and failing, is up there with watching people trying to act on Neighbours. (And failing). It's really not that entertaining and in fact, is kind of awkward and painful to watch.

One highlight was the ad challenge, with two teams required to create ads for whale meat. The 'Beef of the Sea' TVC was kind of cool, as was the prawn on the barbie claiming "Minke's are a fucking menace". Let's face it, there's simply not enough swearing in ads - something to look forward to. Hey, if it's good enough for Gordon, it's only a matter of time before it's good enough for us ad folk.

What is perhaps most interesting, is you can already download the entire episode from the ABC website. (Which saved us having to pirate it and upload it to myspace for all to see). Over and above anything on the actual show, this is something we find super interesting. Although Aunty doesn't rely on ad revenue, free downloads of on-air shows is something we're seeing more and more of across all Free To Air stations and one that has some interesting implications for all of us. The site also has some pretty cool content worth checking out. So overall, while we weren't exactly blown away, we'll look on with interest to see if the show finds its feet over the coming weeks.

Did you watch The Gruen Transfer? We'd love to know what you thought of it. Email us your thoughts now.

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