The conference and award ceremony took place at the Hilton in New York City. Promax/BDA is the worldwide association of entertainment marketers, promoters and designers, representing more than 500 television stations and all major broadcast and cable networks from the US as well as more than 3 000 individual members in 70 countries. This year they received over 11 000 entries for the World Gold Awards. These prestigious awards are the equivalent of the Emmys or BAFTAS in the television industry.
Says e.tv's Vanessa Levenstein, in-house writer of the ad: “This was part of a bigger campaign for The Biggest Loser, in which both Ryan Jales and I wrote various radio spots. The aim was to hype this reality show as huge, a bit gross, and sensational and not to be missed,” she says.
“People are obsessed with the macabre and the abnormal. In promoting the show, we wanted the ‘fattiness' of it to be in your face. Overweight people losing weight is a concept most people find strangely fascinating, so we decided to focus on just that. Humour was certainly the best way to achieve this and the radio ad, tongue-firmly-in-cheek, played heavily on the use of irony.
“Our target market was the typical e.tv viewer, and thus the ad had to appeal to all people regardless of their weight. By using a childish song that breaks into a rude tease, the listener is immediately drawn in, because it's different, unusual, and naughty,” she says.
“This is a great achievement for e.tv's Creative Services Department,” say Kirsty Blackford, head of department. “We always strive to create intelligent, funky and off-the-wall work, and this advertisement fits perfectly in that unique mould.”
The ad was flighted on Yfm, KFM, Highveld Stereo, Talk Radio 702 and Cape Talk.
e.tv will broadcast the second season the The Biggest Loser later this year and will be producing a South African version of The Biggest Loser – to be aired in the first quarter of next year – further details to be released in a few months.
