Today, I want to do a quick shout-out to one of my new favourite shows, The Checkout on ABC1.

The Checkout is all about consumer information, and breaking down myths about big-company bulldust and what rights consumers actually have. While it may not be about the media in terms of being about film or TV, it certainly discusses mediated communication, often in relation to advertising.

For example, one episode talked about the phenomenon of gendered marketing, particularly relevant to my post on colour a few days ago.

More recently, another episode discussed the advertising power of the word ‘natural’. The producers did a random survey of people on the street asking what expectations they would have of a product labelled ‘natural’. The results were unsurprising and not unreasonable; respondents said they would expect it to be organic, healthy and free of added fats or sugars. But of course, the Checkout crew found this wasn’t the case. The problem is, ‘natural’ is a very difficult word to define, which gives companies license to use it in just about any way they choose. Unhealthy, fatty, sugary foods can all be counted as ‘natural’ under the word’s vague definition.

Another great segment of the show, relevant to the advertising and photography side of media, is ‘product versus packshot’, in which footage of what an actual product looks like is compared to what it was shown to look like on the packet. Some classic examples include:

I don’t know that anyone actually expects things to look like they do on the packet, but it’s interesting nonetheless to see them side by side.

On the whole, the show is not only entertaining but provides some really valuable advice on how to avoid being screwed by big corporations. Check out the show on ABC iview or on Thursday nights at 8pm, so you can enjoy the show and so I don’t feel bad about all their stuff that I’ve embedded here 🙂