The Express reported that a high street store had agreed to sponsor a soap opera on the channel, and had placed the story far more prominently on its website than was merited.
And both the Express and Star have made sure that none of their readers could possibly miss that Vanessa Feltz has a new show on Channel 5, which started yesterday.
It was one of the Express' TV picks of the day:
Hosting this bright new daily magazine show, Daily Express columnist Vanessa Feltz promises to draw on all her life experience.
She’ll be joined each morning by a prominent guest to talk through the topics of the day, while her partner Ben Ofoedu will be on hand as the programme’s roving showbiz reporter.
And, according to today's Star:
Vanessa Feltz’s new Channel 5 show has already proved a triumph – for her fiancé.
Within minutes of coming off air yesterday, co-host and musician Ben Ofoedu, 38, got a call from Warner Music wanting to sign him up.
The Phats and Small star, who has been engaged to Vanessa, 48, for four years, said: “What a fantastic day!”
Fascinating.
The Express carries two half-page ads for Channel 5 today. One, on page 33, is devoted to Feltz's new show. The second, on page 41, reveals 'today's top 5' and gives the programme another plug.
So what did Express TV critic Matt Baylis think of the show? To no-one's surprise, he liked it:
A lesson in presenting was provided by the queen of morning television, Vanessa Feltz, who’s back like a breath of fresh air and a most welcome addition to the daytime schedules she is.
From the second the opening credits faded in the first edition of The Vanessa Show (Channel 5) she showed why she’s been so missed from our TV screens.
Seeing Daily Express columnist Vanessa in action it’s easy to forget she’s in a television studio and not just chatting away in your front room. It’s a precious gift for any presenter to possess.
The first of her daily weekday guests got things off to a bright and breezy start, as it was former Pussycat Doll Kimberly Wyatt, who revealed she’s such a supple dancer she can stick her toe in her ear!
Vanessa was joined on the new show by her co-host and fiancé Ben Ofoedu, the chemistry between the pair evident for all to see. He hosted another fun item called Reasons To Be Cheerful. Vanessa’s TV appearance is certainly cause for cheer in a gloomy January.
And Tuesday also happens to be the day Feltz has her weekly column in the Express. No prizes for guessing one of the topics she mentions today:
Did you catch The Vanessa Show on Channel 5 at 11am? It's a frothy confection of celebrities, gossip and fun every weekday morning...
Etc, etc.
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Paragraph 11 of Schedule 1 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations is in play here: "Using editorial content in the media to promote a product where a trader has paid for the promotion without making that clear in the content or by images or sounds clearly identifiable by the consumer (advertorial)."
ReplyDeleteA TV show is undoubtedly a product; the only sticking point is "has paid". In a sense it is paid for indirectly, because the Express's parent company receives the profits made by the show.
I'm assuming the show must get at least some viewers. I can't think how bad their lives must be to actually tune in and watch Vanessa Feltz.
ReplyDeleteWow. That sycophantic prose from Matt Baylis reads like the sort of hagiographic hogwash about the Venerable Leader you might expect in a totalitarian state newspaper.
ReplyDelete