MTV's Controversial Shows Spark Conflict from Advertisers

Last Monday, January 17th, MTV aired it's adaptation of the British television shows, Skins. Trailers for the show portrayed Skins as a risque teen drama full of sex, drugs, and partying. Having seen the trailers on TV, I thought it was just going to be another show like The OC or the remake of 90210, but Skins proves to be much more controversial. Take a look at the trailer:

 After the Skins aired, MTV received extensive backlash for the show's explicit content. In the New York Times blog, Media Decoder, I came across a blog post detailing exactly what opposition groups have against Skins.

“Skins” gained attention earlier in the week when The New York Times reported that MTV executives had ordered edits to coming episodes of the show for fear of running afoul of child pornography statutes. Some of the actors in “Skins” are under the age of 18. After the Times report, the Parents Television Council, a TV watchdog group with conservative tendencies, called on Congress and the Justice Department to “open an investigation regarding child pornography and exploitation.”

The content of the show isn't just stirring concern from watchdog groups, but also with advertisers. Fast food chain Taco Bell pulled their advertisements from the show after seeing one of their ads pop up in the show's first episode, claiming that the show's content doesn't fit with their brand name. The controversy of Skins reminded me of similar backlash MTV faced when it first aired Jersey Shore. Domino's Pizza was a huge advertiser for the show but immediately pulled all ads after it aired because of the racy content and the questionable depiction of Italian-Americans. However, in my opinion, both Taco Bell and Domino's should have continued to advertise on these shows because their main audience is American youth, the exact demographic fast food companies target. I think both these companies have done themselves a complete disfavor by discontinuing advertising because they will be missing out on the millions of young people intended for consumption of their food. Young people aren't concerned with how the content of a television show reflects a brand name that advertises on that show. I guarantee there are few, if any, teenagers that watch shows like Skins and Jersey Shore and actively think that "because of the racy content on this show I'm no longer going to buy a product that advertises during commercials." If anything, they would be more inclined to buy it because a top-rated show and MTV would appear to be endorsing the product.