Gruen Planet – new weekly show aims to unpick stories that affect us all – premieres Wed Sept 28
The earth spins. We don’t.
GRUEN PLANET
Premieres Wednesday, September 28 at 9pm, ABC1
Repeat Thursday, September 29 at 9.30pm, ABC2
Four seasons into The Gruen Transfer and what have we learned? That most of us can be bought or sold. And that sometimes, it actually feels good. We’re all coerced and serenaded by advertising, an industry devoted to changing our minds and our behaviour.
But advertising is not the only industry that wants to get inside our heads and move the furniture around. Which brings us to Spin, Branding, and Image Control. Along with advertising, they form the nervous system of 21st century life. They’re the levers pulled behind most news stories, the silent partners in public debates.
Gruen thinks it’s time to look at these dark arts as well.
Because everyone is on the sell. Tyrants. Sports stars. Actors. Criminals. Politicians. Deities. Charities. Entire nations. They’re all trying to persuade us to think, buy or do things that we weren’t thinking, buying or doing yesterday.
Gruen Planet, Zapruder’s latest show – in advertising they call it a brand extension – will run an x-ray across the world each week, unpicking the stories that affect us all. How do you protect an unstable government when a backbencher goes feral? Does Tiger cut it any more as a business? How has the Arab uprising been turned into Western profit? What was the Dalai Lama doing on Masterchef? Who do you turn to when your family name is your brand – and it’s become toxic?
Each week, host Wil Anderson will be joined by regulars Todd Sampson and Russel Howcroft, along with some of Australia’s smartest communications experts. They will take us inside the persuasion business and explain why the world appears, not as it really is, but as others want us to see it. Why everything is Spin, Branding, Advertising and Image Control.
Each week, two leading advertising agencies will contest The Pitch – this time, taking on seemingly impossible challenges from real-world scenarios. And each week, the Gruen bullshit detector (Australia’s favourite since 2008), will be turned way up past 11.
“We live in a world where it is increasingly difficult to spot the truth through the spin,” says Wil Anderson, “but to be honest, the real reason I am looking forward to Gruen Planet is that I want some tips for what to do next time I say something stupid and the shit hits the fan…”
Welcome to Gruen Planet…
18 Comments
That T shirt Todd’s wearing isn’t nearly as funny as his usual ones.
What’s with trying to make advertising folk important? They’re not saving lives, or educating our kids; they’re selling stuff. I’m sensing the future beatification of David Ogilvy, and Leo Burnett.
Great idea for a brand extension.
larry, moe & curly
What’s the fascination with these guys?Please go away.
There’s Todd – AGAIN!. Can he please just get out of my face.
Doesn’t Todd and Russell have a business to run.
Life at Leo Burnett and GPY&R must be pretty quiet for their CEOs to spend half the week filming TV shows.
I like Todd but his T shirts are becoming a little twatish I fear.
I want to see Russell in T-shirt too.
“I’m with Stupid” would do.
Russel and Todd, Please retire from TV celebrity gracefully or is to late already?
I’m 99% certain I was wearing ironic t-shirts way before Todd. But now I probably just look like I’m trying to be Todd.
Maybe I need a new look. Finnish army surplus meets backwoods mountain man? So-cool-I-don’t-need-to-give-a-fuck Target tees and jeans, with Kmart sneakers? A kilt? Ceremonial tribal outfits? One-piece overalls in pastel colours, like the henchmen wore in the inevitable final shootout at the undersea volcano lair in the earlier Bond films?
I’m stuck.
Sounds to me like they’ve realised they’ve kicked the arse out of Gruen transfer so trying something else only it’s the same, with the same pair on it.
It’s an open secret he is more focussed on building his own TV career than helping run let alone lead the agency. Why global management let him get away with it is a mystery as his fame has been bugger all benefit to the agency.
should have just called it the Muppet Show
5:30pm is that you Banty???
Interesting how in the beginning Todd was the cool guy and Rus was the easy target for ridicule. Now it seems to have swung 360. I tend to agree.
The great irony here is that there will be very little insight gained into the world of spindoctoring because ad guys don’t have a clue about the way editorial works and most gun spindoctors will be reticent to be seen on TV talking about how they manipulate media outcomes.