[ad_1]
HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” featured advertorial content on local TV news channels including Denver7 on May 23. Pictured: Oliver and actress Erica Gonzalez who sold the totally fake Venus Veil sexual wellness blanket. (Screencap from YouTube)
Who among us has not fallen victim to a prank?
Yet Denver7’s “Mile High Living” hit a “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” prank so hard that the impact on the moon was practically audible.
During a segment on Oliver’s HBO show “Spon $ ored Content” on Sunday May 23, the host and comic attacked the fuzzy advertorial lines that separate news and sponsored content – especially shows and products that capture time Win TV news channels.
Also, to be fair, most media websites (including The Denver Post) sometimes offer confusing content that looks like news bulletins. This includes alternative weekly newspapers like Westword, which first reported on the local point of view. But only a few of us are tricked into placing paid advertisements for counterfeit products in print, online or on-air.
“Right now it’s way too easy to take a ridiculous product with fancy claims and get it on local TV,” says Oliver in the clip (see below). “And the reason I know is that we did it.”
Oliver and his Emmy-winning team founded a bogus company called Venus Inventions that turned the Venus Veil into “an absurd medical device based on absolutely nonexistent technology.” The fake website and an actor’s testimonial were enough to get shows to let an actor (called “Erica Hernandez”) on Zoom calls and TV shows where she “branded” the product.
One of them was Denver7 (aka The Denver Channel) on a May 20 episode of Mile High Living that featured “the world’s first sexual health blanket,” supposedly using magnets to increase blood flow to the genitals.
After asking for a comment, Denver Channel’s vice president and general manager Dean Littleton shared the following statement with the Denver Post on Monday: “Denver7 takes the integrity of our content very seriously. We make a clear distinction between local TV news programming and local TV non-news lifestyle programming, including using non-news staff and clearly identifying sponsorship in non-news programs.
“Our non-newscasts are designed to support local businesses and entrepreneurs looking for new ways to market their products, and we believe our viewers understand the differences. … We are reviewing our review processes for non-news segments to ensure that our employees are adhering to the correct standards. “
It appears that these standards have either been ignored or forgotten in the Veil of Venus segment. But it wasn’t just nonsense; It was a stunt designed with a serious aspect in mind. It got a Utah medical correspondent to pimp it, as well as a broadcaster in Austin, Texas, and showed how shockingly easy it is to spread counterfeit products on and around local TV news.
Despite FCC rules requiring the separation of editorial and advertising content (i.e., journalistic separation of church and state), Oliver said that many local broadcasters either completely broke these rules or went against the spirit of the widespread offerings of paid products to have.
Oliver goes through videos in which other people are paid to sell “terrible products” on local television networks, especially medically dubious products. In addition to the Venus Veil, “Mile High Living” also presented the laser-based Mona Lisa Touch in 2019, “the first laser approved by the FDA for treating the vagina”. The only problem? A year earlier, the FDA had declared this class of “energy-based” products to be dangerous.
But the coup de grace was the Venus veil, which looks (and is) like a simple, gray blanket that is hung over the “Mile High Living” couch. Presenter Gina Belich nods and smiles in the clip and even agrees with the actress when she says: “Thank you for making it so easy.” (Uff!)
The stunt in Denver was only $ 2,800, says Oliver, “and unfortunately it didn’t even look that out of place on some of the stations…. I have a simple question for the owners of these stations, who are selling them at a depressingly low price: … You do that (expletive) ?! “
In the event that Coloradans feel attacked, Oliver’s HBO show constantly features local news investigations on their stories. But if you want to see the embarrassing things, jump to the 11:20 mark in the video below when the Denver-related content starts, or 4:20 pm when the Denver7 takedown hits.
“People trust the local broadcaster,” says Oliver. “That’s the point here.”
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, In The Know, to receive entertainment news straight to your inbox.
[ad_2]
