Skins

This month has seen the debut of the popular television show Skins debut in the US, as well as the start of the 5th series in the UK. Many people will have seen the show in the UK, which in the past has been full of teen sex, drug use, and other post-watershed type material. But it turns out that a load of American companies decided to pay for expensive adverts on television channel MTV without doing their research.

A show aimed at the financially lucrative 'teen' audiences must have been a goldmine opportunity for American sponsors, in the way that Jersey Shore, American Idol and (shortly) The X Factor will be. But it appears that Skins isn't as popular as was hoped.

Due to the content of the show, which depicts teenagers taking drug, getting drunk and having sex many TV watchdog groups have rushed to mount their shire ponies (high horses) to criticise the show and claim that it’s a breach of child pornography laws, due to the age of some of the actors that filmed the show.

The pressure being put on the show’s producers has generated publicity for MTV in the way that banned music videos often go onto perform reasonably well in singles charts. But lots of the companies who have paid for advertising during the show have been leaving the show in their droves.

Taco Bell, General Motors, Wrigley’s, Schick (who manufacture razors and shaving foam), Subway and H&R Block (a tax preparation company) have all pulled their adverts after the criticism of the show, most of them citing reasons such as the show was "not aligned with [Schick] corporate guidelines".

The question now is why companies who were so eager to jump aboard the cash cow that is television drama in the US had not done their research on what the show would be about? Or had they thought that maybe content of Skins wasn’t too bad, but wanted to save their reputation by publicly turning their back on the show when the criticism arose. One of the most important things I've learnt (had drummed into me!) on my PR degree this year is about stakeholders, and how important it is to effectively manage each stakeholder group. But if massive companies are making mistakes like these, then I guess it shows that no-one’s perfect! MTV has said that it has no plans to pull the season, which only has 8 episodes left to air.

In terms of tele-visual quality, the US version of season 1 is nowhere near the quality of the British predecessor, but then it’s always been the case that UK television doesn’t translate well to an American audience and vice-versa. The UK season 5 has started off as a bit of a 'slow burner' in my eyes, but strangely I do believe that it could work very well in America because of the way it’s been written, plus the styling and casting of the characters.

What do you think of the UK / US versions of Skins?
Should companies pull out of advertisements because of the content of the show?

Let me know.

Paul