A hiding to nothing, even for those with nothing to hide.
Have you noticed nobody shows up on Watchdog anymore? The national paladin rips into Britain’s finest for heinous misdemeanours and none of them defend themselves? This week it was BSM, Asda, B&Q, M&S: last week Jamie Oliver, British Gas, Thornton’s, Thomas Cook, Ticket Master. The week before? Another bunch of Footsies, I forget which.
What’s going on here? A primetime programme with direct access to 6 million potential customers, most with money to burn apparently and yet they can’t get anybody to come onto their show.
Watchdog - Waiting for an Interviewee
Here is what Watchdog says to bashful multinationals, who may be toying with the offer of a gig at Television Centre on a wet Thursday night.
“…We know from our viewers that they respond very positively when companies take part in the programme (instant reaction media like Twitter tell a different story) … In our last series, earlier this year we included reports about some of the UK’s leading companies, Government departments and associations – these included studio interviews with Procter and Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, the CEO of the DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency), the Spanish Ambassador to the UK, the ABI (Association of British Insurers) and the Chief Executive of HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) “
Not that many, for a series that rattles off consumer beefs like grape shot, 5 brace of businesses winged at a time. Not that many, despite anecdotal evidence that turning-up lowers the risk of being targeted again in subsequent programmes.
So is there a boycott? There was one once, lead by Airtours (fat lot of good it did them) and Ford tried it too, with more success, after WD doorstepped their CEO at the Motor Show.
I don’t think this one is as orchestrated. Companies have just decided that fielding a spokesperson is a waste of time. A ‘hiding to nothing’ was the way one top PR Director described it to me. ‘ The interview is a spectator sport and you are going to lose.’ The only person to go on recently, was a bloke talking twaddle (in my opinion), from a firm supplying Holland & Barrett.
So what’s going on here? Big companies, with huge reputations, thousands of employees and turn-over in billions, scatter. They prefer to let a short statement be butchered and sneered at, than put up a briefed and flossed mouthpiece (see I’ts No Picnic). The programme doesn’t seem to mind any more. Interviews take up time and require brain power. No interview means more scripted flirting and more time to bash another business.
One argument, I often hear PRs use is that an interview lengthens the item by about two minutes and allows the audience to focus on your story, rather than being distracted by the next. It’s true. Others say they don’t want to be associated with the ‘real crooks’ on the prog.
Double Glazing Salesman
I can understand the reluctance of back-street villains to appear. This is why Matt does the Rogue Trader set piece door-step, on people with less mitochondrial DNA than an Atlantic cod. But that’s not relevent here.
Companies may have good answers, companies have staff who need to hear their employers defend themselves, companies may have countless other happy customers who still need re-assurance. The issue at hand may be an aberration.
Despite the Guidelines (them again) saying that a programme should reflect the views of those who don’t show up, human nature being what it is, WD doesn’t do it that well. And I am inclined to say, why should they. If you want a hearing, speak up. Viewers like a bit of gulping mea culpa.
Or, and this is just a thought, is there something more seismic going on. Is Watchdog irrelevant? After 40 years (WD40) has Watchdog become a place where suckers sound off but nobody cares and sales don’t suffer. Despite its face-lifts (Anne Robinson and the Set), employing the talented children of That’s Life (Rebecca Wilcox) and Panorama (Abby Mangold) is Watchdog the British Bulldog it once was? Is the legacy of Roger Cook, of Esther, dying in a pink, blue and yellow studio, where nobody shows up?
