Germany

[DE] Rebuttal of Surreptitious Advertising Rejected

IRIS 2005-10:1/19

Kathrin Berger

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

On 10 October 2005, the Assembly of the Bureau for Media and Communication (LMK) for the Land Rhineland-Palatinate rejected the rebuttal by the private television company Sat 1 of a complaint concerning surreptitious advertising.

The company has been accused of violating the principle whereby television programmes and advertising remain separate. Fault was found with a television game, where the rabbit figure of a sweet manufacturer was faded into television series, films and entertainment shows. Television spectators were supposed to count the number of rabbits and could win prizes. This, in the view of the LMK, was inadmissible in that advertising and television were being mixed together.

As a sanction, the broadcaster must inform spectators of the violation by announcing it during the evening news.