The panel-based show, which bills itself as an advertising version of Have I Got News For You, will aim to pull apart the business and creative output of the advertising industry.
The pair will shoot a pilot of the programme on Monday morning (20 April) at the BBC Television Centre in West London in front of an audience made up of the public and BBC commissioners. The BBC is yet to decide on a screening date for the pilot.
Huntington and Hilton will go up against each other as team captains with a number of undisclosed comedians.
The BBC started its hunt for adlanders with big mouths, who could talk knowledgably about advertising, earlier this month. However, many in the business proved reluctant to put their names forward, fearing that they could be mocked on the show.
In Australia, The Gruen Transfer, hosted by Wil Anderson, has been a huge success with Russel Howcroft, the managing director of George Patterson Y&R Melbourne, and Todd Sampson, the chief executive of Leo Burnett Sydney, acting as team captains.
Saatchi & Saatchi's Richard Huntington and AKQA's James Hilton to star in UK TV show The Gruen Transfer
by Caroline Lovell, campaignlive.co.uk, 17 April 2009, 4:30pm
LONDON - BBC3 has selected Richard Huntington, Saatchi & Saatchi's director of strategy, and James Hilton, AKQA's European chief creative officer, to star in the UK pilot of the Australian TV hit show The Gruen Transfer.
Tags:
Richard Huntington,
Europe,
Media / Entertainment,
Digital,
James Hilton,
BBC3, The Gruen Transfer,,
Advertising
All Comments
Kate Ritchie - 17 April 2009
Teaching the public to laugh at what we do. Brilliant. That'll convince marketing directors and so forth to put more money into the industry.
Nick Baker - 17 April 2009
Bravo - Advertising has to face up to the fact that it is part of the entertainment industry or it is dead.
Troy Kennedy - 17 April 2009
Putting the advertising business into the wider public consciousness is a good thing.
There are thousands of amazingly creative people \(whose inclusion would benefit the industry) that do not consider advertising as it not heralded half as much as it should be. Ask your average Year 11 young person to name an agency and they'd struggle.
At this age young people will be deciding what course of education to take to pursue a career in.
I'm 20, I discovered who AKQA were 3 years ago by chance. Since, I've been pretty much amazed/seduced by the industry and am pursuing a career in it, other people \(who have the potential and are perfectly capable) won't be that lucky.
Do we want the same type of people are getting the same type of positions, producing the same type of work? Or should we let absolutely everybody know about the industry and take on the ones that genuinely have a new way of thinking and can make a real difference?
This type of programme is not to my taste, but it's progress.
MONK - 20 April 2009
I really like Richard Huntingdon's 'adliterate' blog. He speaks much sense and I have no doubt he will be a strong presence in this or any panel discussion.
But why does this show need to exist? Isn't it enough for marketers and advertisers to be self-regarding and self-important to the point of inducing nausea within the pages of the trade press, without inflicting it on the broader public? The '42 Below' viral doing the rounds now has it about right...
Rory Sutherland - 20 April 2009
Both of them will be great - and BBC3 is the perfect place for the programme to appear.
John Gallen - 20 April 2009
Is there really anything new in this bar the fact its a panel show. There have been 'TV Commercial Reel' programmes running on TV for decades hosted by everyone from Chris Tarrant to Harry Hill. We \(UK & Ireland) expect our advertising to be entertaining, not just to shift product. I'll be tuning in.
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