Channel 4 has lost advertisers on its controversial documentary 1000 Men and Me: the Bonnie Blue Story last week as some businesses demanded that their ads be pulled from show
Advertisers have asked Channel 4 to remove their ads from the Bonnie Blue documentary(Image: Rob Parfitt / Channel 4)
Channel 4 has faced demands from advertisers who want their ads removed from its controversial Bonnie Blue documentary. Channel 4’s 1000 Men and Me: the Bonnie Blue Story aired last week and followed the content creator as she showed the dark reality behind her X-rated videos.
Now, businesses have asked for their adverts to be removed from the documentary online – including card payment business Visa, juice maker Cawston Press and vodka brand Smirnoff. The Times reported that the brands did not want their products promoted during the programme as it did not align with their advertising guidelines or values.
The documentary about Bonnie Blue, whose real name is Tia Billinger, faced criticism for featuring explicit sex scenes – including one where the adult content creator films a sex tape with two others in the porn industry. It comes after one Mirror writer claimed ‘the new Bonnie Blue documentary may be the worst thing I’ve ever seen on Channel 4’.
Bonnie Blue shares the grim reality behind her adult content in the Channel 4 documentary(Image: Drum)
A spokesperson for Channel 4 said in a statement: “We take great care to ensure that advertising is appropriately placed across all programming, particularly where content may be sensitive or potentially contentious.
“In the case of 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story, the programme was reviewed in advance of transmission to ensure advertising was suitable. Several brands and categories were excluded to avoid inappropriate juxtapositions.”
They added: “Channel 4 is a commercially funded public service broadcaster. We use commercial revenues such as advertising to make programmes that deliver our remit to create change through entertainment across a wide range of issues. Our programming is created independently from our commercial operation.”
The Mirror understands that Diageo and Cawston continue to advertise on other Channel 4 content and that only this documentary was affected.
Children’s commissioner Dam Rachel de Souza has hit out at the documentary, claiming that it risked damaging efforts to protect teenagers from online porn. “For years we have been fighting to protect our children from the kind of degrading, violent sex that exists freely on their social media feeds,” she told the publication.
“This documentary risks taking us a step back by glamorising, even normalising, the things young people tell me are frightening, confusing and damaging to their relationships.”
Earlier this week, the shadow Home Office minister fumed over the fact that children can watch the Bonnie Blue documentary online despite new stringent age checks that are meant to stop them from accessing pornography.
While the Channel requires viewers to be at least 16 to create an account, the absence of a robust age verification system allows minors to falsify their birth dates to watch the show.
“It seems bizarre to me,” Home Office minister Katie Lam said on Times Radio. “There is clearly a consistency problem both in terms of content and in terms of platform.”
Ofcom has not yet revealed whether it will investigate Channel 4 airing the documentary but said it was “assessing the complaints against [its] rules”. Meanwhile, Channel 4 said that the programme was “compliant with the Ofcom broadcasting code”.
Channel 4 defended the decision to make the documentary about the adult star, who boasts of sleeping with 1,057 men in 12 hours. Commissioning Editor Tim Hancock said: “I believe it is Channel 4’s job to tell stories like this, trying to get behind the truth of the headlines. We film real stories in real time. We are very proud to do films like this.”
