So how did everything pan out after the Celebrity Big Brother controversy? Well first of all Channel 4 put together a hasty and ill-advised press conference with a polo-shirted chief executive Andy Duncan refusing to accept any responsibilty for some pretty excruciating TV - which a lot of young and easily influenceable people would be watching. (Andy Duncan - you need some serious media training and you need to sack whatever numpty was advising you - you came across as ill-advised, disrespectful, defensive and arrogant). And I think the media agrees with me -
Then came the inevitable feeding frenzy of tabloid criticism - Jade Goody was renamed Jade Baddy etc.etc. Politicians banded together and called on the general public not to watch the show and yes..unfortunately it did become an international talking point.
Even more excruciating was the next night's programme (after 23,000 complaints to Offcom) where it became clear that Endemol (the production company behind the show) had intervened off-camera and all of a sudden the nasty poisonous bullying atmosphere had totally gone and everyone was being more reasonable - unbelievably reasonable..and that led to quite a boring night's viewing. But Channel 4 and Endemol are sitting pretty aren't they? They have 1000s more phoning in to evict Jade and they are making 100s of £1000s in the phone revenues - nice score C4.
Now I am watching 'eviction night' when Jade and Shilpa are up against eachother and they have jointly come into the diary room (the house forum) all pretend and sweet and best of friends and just loving eachother. It is disgustingly staged and reeks of briefings from the station and the production company to 'keep the national peace'. Well done. I am sure that people who dont understand how propaganda works will now be happy that there was no racism or bullying and now think that it was just a little spat that was over-hyped.
Jade subsequently made a plea to leave and cried about 'being hated' when it became blindingly obvious that she was going to be kicked out. It stinks. She bleats about being scared and yet she was an abominable bully and a lot of people will think that she deserves all the flak she is going to get.
But is it all her fault? When she first went into the big brother house she was an ill-educated dental nurse who could barely speak English properly. She was exploited then and (fair play to her) she got herself paid well out of that exploitation. Now she is being exploited again because she is a 'common, uncouth bully' (not my words!).
Don't get me wrong - I have no sympathy for her - I actually admire her ability to get herself out of her bad situations by pleading the 'thick' card when really she is a lot more clever and manipulative than she comes across. The ones that have really benefitted out of this are:
- Channel 4 : Unprecedented viewing numbers and telephone revenues (only after they were publicly asked did they decide to donate some to charity).
- Carphone Warehouse: The sponsors who withdrew their sponsorship and got more media value and credibility than they ever would have done without this incident.
- India: The British love an underdog ..I predict a rise in Shilpa's career, more interest in Bollywood and a huge appreciation of our Indian-origin communities.
The one big question is will Jade survive? I think she will because she represents a very naive part of our society who thought Shilpa was a 'stuck up bitch' because she was well educated and aloof. She was a bit 'stuck-up' actally but she didnt deserve the bullying she was subjected to. Jade's represents a part of our society is prejudiced, judgemental and unforgiving and I find that very sad. That is why Jade's media career will continue - fuelled by people who see her as the girl who came out of the slums and made good. Sadly in this instance, in my opinion she made bad - very bad.
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