BJK&E

Mmmm… chocolate. One of my favourite things on the planet. So I couldn’t help noticing Cadbury in Media Week’s brand barometer, following the most recent “glass-and-a-half production”. The new ad broke on 30th March, days after Terminal 5 opened its doors. I have to admit the first time I saw it I did think it was an attempt by BA to make the chaos seem more appealing, making light of losing luggage by blaming it on those cheeky trucks running riot after hours. Bad timing indeed. But how did “Trucks” fair against it’s precursor? According to BrandIndex, while our old friend Gorilla Collins pushed Cadbury’s “buzz” up 5 points, the racing airport vehicles have not managed to keep up the buzz-mentum, (two points down since the ad debuted). Oh dear. Maybe this chocolate factory is getting a bit too willy-wonky for their own good! Whatever happened to the old self-indulgent, tongue flicking, mmm-I’m-making-love-to-my-chocolate kind of ads, a la Flake? Oh yeah, they’re back. Except with the obscenely irritating Joss Stone. Mind you, at least the new Flake ad makes me want to eat chocolate, although not in the direct way I imagine they hoped. Rather, I’m so wound up with annoyance but that idiot prancing around on my TV that I crave a hit of cocoa to curb the anger! If you ask me, Aero have the right idea in getting girls to drool over a chocolate ad - put the confectionary in front of a half naked Smith from Sex and the City. Mmmm indeed!

There’s not much I have to watch on telly these days but the Apprentice is lighting up my Wednesday evenings.  This series looks set to be a corker with Siralan at his pantomime best and the best comedy duo on TV bar none, Nick ‘n Margaret, withering for England.  It’s scandalously biased but the editing is fabulous and also manages to make London look like the best city in the world.

Standout characters so far are Raef (and his hair) and the unbelievably awful Jenny, who should have been sacked last week but wasn’t because she’ll make good TV.  From what we’ve seen so far, they’re all pretty useless, but my money’s on someone from the school of hard knocks winning this year after Sir Alan picked posh last time round.  Blardy marvellous.

I have recently been on honeymoon. 3 weeks in Costa Rica without mobile or even Blackberry reception….I was nervous at the prospect but it turned out to be bliss having no contact with the outside world - apart from the occasional sneaky look at BBC News to check we weren’t at war or anything. However on my return and after a 26 hour door to door journey ( I swear Miami airport is run by the devil)  I was more than ready to catch up with the world, especially the world of trash TV! So what did I record on my TV Plus whilst away. Whilst my husband (still feels weird saying that) had plugged in mostly highbrow music and cultural shows I relished the prospect of watching my hours upon hours of America’s Next Top Model, Supersize versus Superskinny and Crazy in Love. Sofa, pizza and Tyra being a bitch - what could be better when jetlagged?

 We also managed to record some things we could watch together, current favourites include the new series of Skins, Torchwood and the new series Reaper which is good stupid fun about a guy whose parents sold his soul to the devil and must now pay the consequences - one of my favourite directors Kevin Smith, of Mallrats, Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob fame, is also involved.

I didn’t manage to catch much TV in Costa Rica but what I saw in the background of bars seemed to consist of dodgily dubbed soap operas that looked like they had been filmed in the 80’s. The UK may not have sun soaked beaches, abundant wildlife or baby monkeys to hold but at least we have Kerry Katona to entertain us eh………

Most of the UK knows about all the racism issues brought up in last year’s Celebrity Big Brother. Amongst fears that people lost faith in the show and decreasing viewing figures the show’s producers decided to give the format a bit of a shake-up. This time, the celebrities act as ‘Big Brother’ by setting tasks, controlling shopping budgets and basically doing what they like. Another change is the contestants had to have at least one talent to be in the house – in other words these are people who wouldn’t have been allowed in the house in previous years. This was probably due to talentless schmucks being more malleable and you can make them do just about anything.

Thankfully, the show has not taken up any space on Channel 4, but has instead been pushed onto E4. This has resulted in the expected decrease in viewing figures. The performance of this show will probably determine the future of any other Big Brother shows. I, for one, hope it doesn’t succeed. I admit it - I used to watch Big Brother in the early years. It was interesting – a social experiment if you will. But all it seems to be about now is watching a group of people argue all the time and getting drunk so they come out of the house famous. Shove a whole family there at Xmas time and that could be interesting!

There are also rumours that the celebrities will be put in the house and voted off soon, but I won’t be watching to find out.

Prior to coming over to London from America to start work as BJK&E’s new intern, I knew that British television was bad. There’s something in every American’s internal wiring that makes us wary of UK programming.Beside such universally adored icons as Monty Python or Ricky Gervais, I had not really ever been exposed to British television. I had developed a stereotype of British TV. I would picture either some variation of Benny Hill, where every scene would end with some rapscallion involved in a hyper-speed chase, or I would imagine an absolutely drab melodrama of some aristocrats with ‘holier than thou’ attitudes. So when I finally landed across the pond, I decided not to watch any British television,

Instead of no TV at all, I decided to go where everyone goes to solve their problems: the internet. Google finally proved useful and found a website called TV Links. Within five second of visiting the homepage, I had realized I found a gold mine Perusing through the site, I found their tagline to be a bit modest: “Better than a remote control”.

They have 6 categories of content including Shows, Cartoons, Documentaries, Anime, Movies and Music Videos. The selection of TV shows is quite impressive. I immediately went for Kung Fu, the classic, aptly titled series featuring David Carradine (he played Bill in Kill Bill). There are a large amount of British shows on there too, since the web address is actually www.tv-links.co.uk. I tried a couple out, such as Ruddy Hell! It’s Harry and Paul, but I guess I’ll never quite appreciate the subtleties of television over here.

Movies have quite the selection, including freshly bootlegged versions of films still in theatres. A classic one which I am quite partial to is called Reefer Madness. It was made in 1936 as a cautionary tale featuring a fictionalized and highly exaggerated take on the use of marijuana, following a trio of drug dealers who lead innocent teenagers to become addicted to “reefer” cigarettes by holding wild parties with jazz music. Those swingers and floozies have always been trouble.

The Music Video section provided a great selection of videos, concerts, and interviews of artists. As for all you English-folk out there, I know you’re dying to know if they have Phil Collins on there. Yes, sadly, they do.

As for the rest of the site, I’ll let you navigate with your own discretion. And next time you think you’re stuck watching Neighbours, think again.