In what's being described as a gesture of goodwill toward the BBC, Doctor Who, and its potentially alienatable fans, Virgin Media has agreed to pull one of its three commercials featuring David Tennant--the one that most brazenly tried to leverage the actor's association with the public as the Tenth Doctor.
The ad, which shows Tennant actually TiVoing Doctor Who while Virgin mogul Richard Branson carried on building a time machine, met with angry statements from the BBC and its international arm BBC Worldwide that Virgin was trying to make money off BBC property by implying a BBC/Who endorsement of the media service, while fans divided over whether the ads were just good fun or crass exploitation.
The main problem is that they weren't very subtle about trying to cash in on Tennant's time on Doctor Who. But then Branson is certainly one to seek refuge in audacity--as is the Doctor, for that matter.
A joint statement from Virgin Media and BBC Worldwide said: "Virgin Media has listened to concerns raised by BBC Worldwide about perceived commercial endorsement by a BBC brand relating to the recent Virgin Media ad... As a gesture of goodwill, Virgin Media has agreed to withdraw the ad and BBC Worldwide is satisfied that the issue has been addressed."
Meanwhile, we're left with the concept of the Doctor sitting around watching Doctor Who recordings. Unfortunately, for me that causes a series of unpleasant flashbacks to the courtroom scenes in "Trial of a Time Lord," so, thanks a lot, Richard Branson, for reminding me.
The ad, which shows Tennant actually TiVoing Doctor Who while Virgin mogul Richard Branson carried on building a time machine, met with angry statements from the BBC and its international arm BBC Worldwide that Virgin was trying to make money off BBC property by implying a BBC/Who endorsement of the media service, while fans divided over whether the ads were just good fun or crass exploitation.
The main problem is that they weren't very subtle about trying to cash in on Tennant's time on Doctor Who. But then Branson is certainly one to seek refuge in audacity--as is the Doctor, for that matter.
A joint statement from Virgin Media and BBC Worldwide said: "Virgin Media has listened to concerns raised by BBC Worldwide about perceived commercial endorsement by a BBC brand relating to the recent Virgin Media ad... As a gesture of goodwill, Virgin Media has agreed to withdraw the ad and BBC Worldwide is satisfied that the issue has been addressed."
Meanwhile, we're left with the concept of the Doctor sitting around watching Doctor Who recordings. Unfortunately, for me that causes a series of unpleasant flashbacks to the courtroom scenes in "Trial of a Time Lord," so, thanks a lot, Richard Branson, for reminding me.
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Comments
Anyone with basic comprehension skills and an actual attempt to research why this ad was pulled would know why they wanted it pulled. You obviously don’t have one.
No one was left with an impression that David Tennant was the Doctor watching re-runs of Doctor Who as he was clearly named as David in the commercial and Richard Branson wasn’t in a time machine. He was in a machine that provided the fountain of youth as seen in a season 3 episode of Doctor Who called The Lazarus Experiment.
As I noted in my original coverage and this follow-up, there is of course no question that Tennant is playing the Doctor. He’s appearing as David Tennant, former star of Doctor Who, and leveraging the Doctor Who name to promote Virgin Media; BBC Worldwide’s claim that this would have required permission to use the name — which Virgin did not ask for — and so created the impression of a BBC endorsement is debatable but not unreasonable.
Branson is building a capsule that is clearly labeled “Virgin Time Travel.” The fact that the effect seen in the end is age regression seems to be an accident, but either way what he is explicitly doing at the beginning of the ad is building a “time travel” machine.
I stick by my original comment in which you nor the rest of the media who have reported on this matter have done the due diligence in order to properly cover this story. Have you actually even watched the show or the episode in which this commercial is obviously derived from?
I would guess not.