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THE BROADCASTING AUTHORITY of Ireland has decided to allow paid product placement on Irish TV shows.
Advertising by companies on television can take place in three ways – as advertisements during scheduled breaks and between shows, as sponsors of a show or series and as product placement.
Brian Furey of the BAI told TheJournal.ie that up until now, paid product placement within a show had not been allowed by the broadcasting watchdog. Today’s announcement means that regulation will be reversed, something that will no doubt come as a relief to shows such as TV3′s The Apprentice.
The show’s producers and TV3 had previously insisted that companies had not been paying for the prominent display of certain products and companies within each episode of the reality show. Brian Furey said that it “could have been considered sponsorship” in a situation where the companies were mentioned at the “top and tail” of each show.
From now on, paid product placement will be allowed in the following areas:
Children’s programmes and shows with more than 20 per cent of news/current affairs content will be prohibited from benefitting from the new paid product placement decision.
Broadcaster will also be obliged to precede the programmes that now use product placement with a written announcement to state that it contains product placement. The names of companies that have paid for product placement must also be listed in the end credits and a logo containing the letters PP will have to be displayed before, during and after programmes using it.
Brian Furey of the BAI said that the regulations were broadly in line with EU recommendations that came in last year.
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I am a vet. Veterinary Ireland successfully campaigned, in association with the ISPCA, in 2019 for fur farming to be banned in Ireland. As a result the current Programme for Government contains a commitment to phase out fur farming as soon as possible.
Given that the core decision to phase out fur farming had already been made it is correct, on the precautionary principle, to expedite this closure of mink farms, thus removing the risk mink potentially pose to public health. As the farmers were going to be compensated for closing in any event, the cost to the state was not going to differ much whether it’s done now or done next year.
It is absolutely the correct decision to do this now and has the beneficial consequence of ending fur farming in Ireland.
@Alan Rossiter: Class post. Thanks for that Alan
@Alan Rossiter: Fair comment, but what’s next for the cull? Cows? Sheep? Or maybe family pets? Where will this stop?..
@Pat Lane: Cows are needed for food purposes not for fashion so it’s slightly different.
@Alan Rossiter: k
@Pat Lane: Mink are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and can go on to develop clinical signs with a relatively high fatality rate. They became infected by human workers on the farms and when infected they can, and did, re-infect humans on those farms who in turn infected others in the community in Denmark.
What was found in Denmark was that a mutation of the virus occurred in mink and this in turn infected human workers on the farms with this mutated variant. These workers went on to infect others in the community.
There was, and is, a fear that this mutation, known as ‘Cluster-5′, could render the vaccines currently in production ineffective as the mutation alters the ‘spike protein’ on the surface of the virus – it is this ‘spike protein’ that the vaccines are being developed to induce immunity against.
In simple terms the mink caused a change the spike that the vaccines are ‘looking for’ and, if this variant of the virus got into the human population, the vaccines we have coming on stream may be no good.
News today seems to be that the efforts taken in Denmark have worked and this variant has been eliminated. Fingers cross this is the case, but only time will tell.
Cattle, sheep, pigs and other farm animals are not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2. Cats have shown low levels of susceptibility, dogs much less so again, but there has been no evidence of cats or dogs infecting humans and no evidence of viral mutation in these species. There has to my knowledge been no reported positive cat or dog in Ireland or Britain. All other animals pose a completely different risk level to that posed by mink.
@Alan Rossiter: if one good thing comes out of it ,
This is a good day for animal welfare in Ireland to see the end of this industry.
We need to stop factory farming animals. Especially pigs and chickens. Most major outbreaks are due to despicable factory farming practices on innocent animals. Karma has bitten us in the rear end . .
@saoirse janneau: factory farmed chicken has the smallest carbon footprint of all meats though.
So I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.
The mink “herd” all for false eyelashes
Maybe if we stopped keeping mink in unnatural conditions, in cages where their feet are torn apart and then they are electrocuted from the inside in a horrific death we wouldn’t get infected. Stop bloody wearing fur and leave mink to live in the wild
Holohan wants them all killed. Tax payer pays for the loss of this years’ harvest to the mink farmers. (Mink farming already agreed to be phased out)
Glad to see the farms go but hopefully mink won’t become extinct in Ireland.
@Sophie: all “wild ” mink in Ireland are escaped farmed or pets .they are an invasive species here and destroy native animal populations
@Sophie:
Mink in Ireland are escapees from fur farms or animals deliberately released by busybodies.
They are an invasive species that are not native and do not belong in this country.
They kill native wildlife for fun.
They deserve to be made extinct in this country.
@Donal O’Brien: I understand that but from a different perspective… minks are animals, humans are animals. Humans also kill wildlife for fun. What’s the difference? Why is one allowed to happen and the other isn’t?
@Sophie: because humans also take some effort to preserve the surroundings. Invasive species dont
Free the Mink
@Gary Smith:
No. Mink are a dangerous menace to the countryside.
A few months ago the excuse for planeloads of people arriving to pick strawberries during a lockdown was that it would be a terrible waste to let them go bad. It seems animals are far more expendable than fruit. It’s this disrespect for life that started this virus.
As for them being an ‘invasive species’ that’s a load of bollocks. They didn’t decide to come here. Don’t blame animals for being sentient beings that don’t act as you think they should. Maybe humans are the invasive species.
Phew !!! Thank the HSE for their honestly. !!
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