Gruen Transfer, The: Series 3 - Episode 11 (ATOM Study Guide)

The Gruen Transfer is a show about advertising – how it works and how it works on us. Hosted by Wil Anderson, the show decodes and defuses the commercial messages that swirl through our lives.

In its first year, The Gruen Transfer notched up a number of records, including the highest rating for an entertainment debut on the ABC (its first episode had nearly 1.3 million viewers). It also regularly won its time slot ratings, averaging 1.25 million viewers a week, and performed brilliantly in all adult demographics. The show's website was flooded with people wanting to take the opportunity to make their own ads (10,000 of them across the ten weeks of the show).

Wil is joined each week by some of the best and brightest minds of the advertising industry, experts prepared to share the ideas and insights that drive them. Each episode features news from the world of advertising and examines the tactics used to sell particular products, whether it be cars, chocolate or cleaning products. In the regular segment 'The Pitch', agencies compete to fulfil a seemingly impossible brief. This season also features the hunt for the 'Worst ad. Ever', with a contender for the title screened each week.

In this episode:

New ads – promotion for WaterAid featuring motorised turds, and a 'killer' ad for baby carrots; how do you sell … infomercials; The Pitch – to convince the Australian public to accept 'boat people'; Ad Crunch – tobacco companies resist Australian government moves to introduce plain packaging of cigarettes; the 'Worst Ad. Ever.' – Soviet advertising genius Harry Egipt's 1980s ad for a paint and chemical store.

Important topics in this episode include insights into the purposes and mechanisms of Direct Response Television (DRTV), otherwise known as infomercials; raising an awareness of 'astroturfing'; and the question of whether governments should assume responsibility over citizens' individual rights to choose for themselves – in this case, with regard to the promotion of cigarettes.

Curriculum links

This study guide is mainly aimed at middle- and upper-secondary school levels, with relevance:

• English
• Media Studies
• Graphics
• Ethics and Philosophy
• Psychology
• Business Studies and Marketing
• SOSE/HSIE

Before viewing

There are two previous series of The Gruen Transfer. Study guides for all episodes of series 1 and 2 are available to download here.