Ben’s Musings

Very awesome!

In the last week I received 2 responses from my complaint, one from Channel 4 and the other from OFCOM:

Channel 4:

Dear Mr Gibbs,

Thank you for your email regarding 4oD.

We are sincerely sorry for the advert that was broadcast as it obviously should not have been shown prior to any children’s programme. This was due to a technical error in the delivery system against this ad campaign only.

We have addressed this and a resolution is in place to ensure that this does not happen again.

Again we are very sorry for this error.

If you require further information, feel free to email me back or visit
http://help.channel4.com/catch-up

Regards,

Penny Watson
Channel 4 Customer Support

OFCOM:

Dear Mr. Gibbs,

Thank you for your recent complaint.

We raised the matter with Channel 4, whose Advertising Operations Controller confirmed that it was a mistake which was due to a technical error in the delivery system against this advertisement campaign only.  The error in the system has been addressed and a resolution of the error has been put in place which should prevent the problem from reoccurring.

Channel 4 also expressed its hope that the resolution of the error will avoid it happening again.

Given the actions taken by Channel 4 in this instance we do not consider there is the need for any further regulatory action.

Yours sincerely,

Adam Baxter

I feel satisfied with these responses and I’m glad I complained. Hopefully this won’t happen again to any other kids.

I just sent a complaint to Channel 4 and Ofcom. Here it is:

Hello.

This complaint regards the adverts shown before and during 4oD programs.

Yesterday (Saturday 13th March) I sat in-front of my laptop with my 22 month old son to watch The Nightingale And The Rose (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/wilde-stories/4od#2923120), an animation aimed at children. One of the 2 adverts shown before the cartoon began was for Greenzone, a film with a 15 or 18 certificate.

The trailer contained guns and gun fire, suggested violence and injury, a helicopter being blown up and other violent images. I understand that this trailer would have been deemed “suitable for all” since it didn’t show the fist hitting the man, the people aboard the helicopter were not shown, we did not see people getting hit by bullets, etc.

Yet I was upset that my son had to sit through this suggested violence, harm and threat before we could watch the children’s animation. The same trailer also appeared before we watched Little Wolf’s Book Of Badness (http://www.channel4.com/programmes/little-wolfs-book-of-badness/4od#2930806) a couple of weeks ago.

It also makes little sense advertising a product aimed at people aged 15 or over to children who would not be able to buy the product or see the film. I imagine your advertisers would see that as wasted spending.

I would like you to remove this trailer and all other adverts which contain suggested violence, threat, harm and guns from 4oD programs aimed at children under 16. I am a web developer and would find it hard to believe that you either don’t have or can’t build a system which excludes certain adverts from showing before or during certain 4oD programs.

I have also sent this complaint to vod@ofcom.org.uk. Please let me know what action you will take.

Thank you, Ben Gibbs

Babies have always been in my top 3 favourite things in the world, so this film already looks like it is my favourite film ever!

I enjoyed this honest and funny account of modern fatherhood by Phil Hilton in The Independant today.

I particularly liked the image of Dads racing home after work, trying to get past one another in the belief that the other dads are doing better than them!

So what does it take to be a SuperDad? There are no real conclusions, but some good pointers. Here are some good quotes from the article:

“Child-rearing has become a scientific project. Children don’t grow up; we feel we have to bring them up and raise them. We are very competitive and we want to give our children the best ever. In the past, before we adopted a scientific model, parenting was about children fitting into our lives.”

“I need answers; I need to know what the hell quality time really is, and I need to know exactly how much I’m supposed to deliver every week. I’m a man; I want targets, measurable targets”

“So I’m building a better understanding of quality time, but now I need to know which method works best – should I be child-centred or middle-aged man-centred?”

“Looking deep into my son’s eyes, I tell him he can pick something to do on Sunday that he’d enjoy and that Daddy wouldn’t normally want to do. My face is filled with optimism for our future and eager curiosity as to his choice. “I could hit you in the penis with a baseball bat,” he responds and falls about laughing.”

I just came across this film called Being Dad. It looks like a wonderful affirmation of fatherhood including the fear, joy, humour, and inexperience of becoming a dad. I’d love to see the whole film - nudge nudge Mary-Lou! Here’s the trailer:

Since I saw the teaser for the upcoming film 2012 I’ve been excited. Then the trailer came out and it looks awesome! However, this trailer sums up the film well enough if you haven’t heard about it yet:

There are too many smushy gushy cards out there wishing others well and reminding us to be happy - eurgh! That’s why I like Mean Cards, here’s a few of my favourites:

Wednesday 20th May

Yesterday we went back to Stanley Park to go on the Miniature Railway and to the Childrens Farmyard. Toby was excited when we were on the miniature train which Mary-Lou also enjoyed greatly. I liked the animals in the farmyard which included alpacas, llamas and bunny rabbits!

On our way out of Stanley Park, we stopped at a bicycle rental shop to ask about when we rent them. They don’t attach buggies to Tandem bikes so we would have to have 2 seperate bikes, but Mary-lou can’t ride a bike. However, she had a go and did really well. She and I were both very pleased and proud of her!

Today we went whale watching. It was amazing! Killer Whales are actually Dolphins, I didn’t know that and was a bit disappointed to learn so! We took a boat from Granville Island and it took 1.5 hours to get the whales, then the boat engine broke, so we were floating around for an hour while the guide tried to entertain us with stories and books about Orca’s. The captain managed to fix the engine and we headed back to the whales and saw one breach (jump out of the sea), Mary-Lou was so excited. Because the engine wasnt working propetly it took 2.5 hours to get back and they took us to Stevenston harbour where we got taxi’s back to the house. We got in tired but happy at 9pm.

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This is part of my Vancouver holiday journal. To see all our holiday pictures click here for our Flickr set.

Monday 18th May

Ulrike and Craig were with us yesterday and we all went to Granville Island Market. The Public Market is very big and exciting with all sorts of fresh food. We also saw live crabs and a live Lobster waved at Toby!

One public performer at the Market did juggling on top of a stack of a box, a stand, another box and a skateboard. I found him quite funny and his mannerisms reminded me of an old friend, Isaac. We all went to Bridges for lunch which was very nice then Craig and Ulrike bought some food for our English Breakfast dinner later that evening which was yummy!

Today has been a “mooch” day. Ulrike and Craig left this morning so we went up to Commercial Drive to have a mooch around. We had lunch at a Carribean place called The Reef. Mary-Lou REALLY enjoyed her dish, but I didn’t think the flavours of mine went together. Toby just ate his without fuss, as usual! Then we went shopping for some more stuff and came home to watch the finale of 24 in the evening! A nice relaxing day.

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This is part of my Vancouver holiday journal. To see all our holiday pictures click here for our Flickr set.