Gruen Transfer, The: Series 4 - Episode 4 (ATOM Study Guide)

The Gruen Transfer (TGT) is a show about advertising, how it works, and how it works on us.

In the fourth season of The Gruen Transfer, inimitable host Wil Anderson will once again pick apart the seams of advertising with the extraordinary Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson, ably supported by our rotating panel of Dan Gregory, Dee Madigan, Jeremy Nicholas, Bridget Taylor, Jane Caro, Rowan Dean and Carolyn Miller.

Old favourite segments including The Pitch – where two agencies compete to sell the unsellable – will return, along with another End-Of-Show Quest. Last year (2010) we voted for The Worst Ad Of All Time. This year (2011), we're pushing that idea further, hoping to identify and celebrate The Worst Product Of All Time!

By the way, last year The Gruen Transfer averaged 1.4 million viewers on ABC1 each week. Gruen Nation was the ABC's highest rating show of the year. Indeed, both versions of Gruen earned places in the top ten shows of the year. Transfer also won the 2010 AFI for Best Light Entertainment program.

The Gruen Transfer is a Zapruder's other films co-production with ABC TV. Executive producers are Andrew Denton, Anita Jacoby and Sophia Zachariou. The show was co-created by Andrew Denton and Jon Casimir. It is produced by Jon Casimir.

In this episode:

Latest ads to catch the eye – Mobile phones, flying fishes, and cars that sing happy birthday; How do you sell – condoms; the Pitch – to ban swearing; Ad Crunch – neuromarketing; the Worst Product Ever – the Bear Scratch.

Important topics in this episode include why condoms are not advertised on the basis of health or safe sex. In connection with this is the question of why more women than men buy condoms. As well we look at how neuromarketers work out ways of creating ads that affect us on a subconscious level, psychologically inducing us to buy. This raises the issue of whether, in the future, as 'brain mapping' becomes more sophisticated, stricter controls will have to be placed on the advertising industry.

Curriculum links

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

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