TV Sponsorship

The Domino's sponsorship will go down in history as far as I'm concerned. But the kid-friendly sponsors like Onki and the Beano just riles me, as it does nothing to quash the misconception that The Simpsons is (or was) simply a children's cartoon.

C4 had much more IIR - Bing, Birds Eye, Bernard Matthews, 118 118, loads of films, M&M Direct, Change4Life, Pizza Hut and, according to online, Dominos.

When C4 poached The Simpsons from BBC Two, it was sponsored by Pizza Hut. Clever considering who was sponsoring it on Sky at that point. Hard to believe there was an entire night devoted to its acquisition, complete with Simpsons-themed panel show.

I remember that night, it was Bonfire Night 2004 and the panel show was called 'The World according to the Simpsons'. I don't think Dominos actually sponsored it on C4, but, the internet does think that.

I do quite like that format though I think it is only allowed now in advertiser funded programmes.

Did anyone realise that sponsor on PTTW yesterday. It was literally the same one over and over and over (and over) again. I think it was for BooHoo Man.

Yes not exactly the most sophisticated campaign, just the same clip into and out of every break all throughout the series.

I remember that for a while (early to mid-90s I think) the Tyne Tees birthday spot was sponsored by Golden Wonder. Odd, because it wasn't a programme as such (it certainly wasn't mentioned in the listings mags), just the continuity announcer appearing in vision reading out a few birthday greetings before announcing into the next programme.

Previously the CA fitted birthdays into any appropriate junction but by the earlyish 90s they were normally only read out once a day. A Golden Wonder slide and recorded announcement by Jane Jermyn would appear before a cut to the duty announcer with a standard TTTV backdrop. I think this may have continued until March 1996 when all continuity moved to Leeds, or it may have disappeared somewhat sooner.

I always presumed it was a regulatory change that appeared to occur around the time of the switch from the IBA to the ITC as most of this dates from that time. Either that or it was more convenient to just edit them in for playout purposes.

Some more examples:

Play Your Cards right from 1994 (when Challenge repeat these you can hear the jump in the music as they cut round the sponsor bumpers):


Wish You Were Here, 1993, this one incorporated it good and proper over the music bed:


By 1998 it had mostly gone full circle presentation wise as this WYWH from 1999 shows, but they're still edited into the programme but not as part of the titles and the final sponsor bumper is still before the viewer information and end-cap.


Then of course we have the CITV Telly Tots sponsorship that so obviously looks like the rest of the CITV branding at the time - this is from one of the videos they released but the same sponsorship was used on the air in probably 1998 or 1999, see start:

I'm a sucker for that modulation from the BT sponsorship bit into the main This Morning theme - if only we were allowed things like that these days!

For a while, I remember it was "Domino's Delivery Service" that was sponsoring The Simpsons, in case you wanted to get something off the menu which wasn't high in fat, salt or sugar. Not sure if an Ofcom ruling saw that off.
UEFA Champions League is the only thing I can think of with sponsor credits as part of the titles - and they're a bit unusual in that there are two, and they change each matchweek.

That sponsorship ended last week. It tied in to a live action ad with a kid with an excited wagging tail. A few months after that (crap) campaign ended, they removed the tail from the cartoon child.

It wasn't overly annoying, just naff.