Local News: Uniliver Suspends TV ads on 'all game shows'

Recent development spurring from the 'child abuse' controversy that TV5's Willing Willie received, UNILEVER Philippines, Inc. a multinational corporation and one of the country's leading producer and maker of household products such as soaps, detergents, shampoo etc. is suspending all of their advertisements placed on "all reality-based live game shows across all (television) networks." Unilever mentioned in a press release that "the suspension will be in place until they have observed a stricter and objective self-regulatory guidelines across networks and proper enforcement by the relevant government agencies of existing content regulations"

This is a nice move from one of the companies that can be considered a lifeblood of major TV networks in terms of advertising. Also with the move to suspend their ads, Unilever would also like to see the Movie Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) strenghten their regulations about contents across all live programs, and making sure that TV networks are clear about the potential sanctions for erring programs. I am sure there will be changes in the policies and guidelines of TV networks now that the Willing Willie issue has blown out of proportion. And besides who wouldn't want Unilever pour in millions of pesos in advertising in their stations? Now its just a matter of who implements the changes first (though TV5 have already mentioned that they have already created a regulatory body to oversee this type of issues see my related article about this. http://ch1nelas.blogspot.com/2011/04/entertainment-tv5-feeling-heat-of.html )

Who would have thought that a controversy involving one TV network would redefine the landscape of live programs on network TV? Talking about Unilever flexing their muscles. Good job ei! :)

Entertainment: TV5 feeling the heat of Willie Revillame's latest controversy

Is Willie Revillame the proper noun of CONTROVERSIAL? Damn! Everywhere he goes he is always at the center of it and now TV5 is feeling the heat already with yet another controversy of one of their most prized acquisition.

Willie Revillame is undergoing another barrage of criticism from all sector of the society for the alleged child abuse incident that he did with one of the contestants from his prime time show, Willing Willie.

In case you haven't heard, the Movie Television Review and classification Board (MTRCB) has issued a statement against ABC TV5 regarding the incident that happened last March 12, 2011 wherein a six year old boy Jan-Jan Estrada dancing in tears on Willing Willie to a cheering studio audience.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Commission on Human Rights and other groups such as the United Nations Childrens Education Fund (UNICEF) have already called for reforms in television programming involving children.

In response to the ongoing controversy, TV5 mentioned that they will follow stricter guidelines on the appearance and performance of minors on all of their programs and even created a new Standards Advisory Board composed of creative directors, psychologists and a childrens communication expert. The move is a welcome sight to make sure that no minors are exploited by any shows just for the sake of rating and entertainment.

Though I think the move failed to impress MTRCB since what they wanted ABC TV5 to do is impose punitive sanctions on the program that ranges from a reprimand up to cancellation of the program (which i don't think TV5 would ever do).

I'm sure ABS-CBN must be smiling on the side with all of this controversies that is hounding their former cash cow.