Mullvad VPNMullvad was banned on British TV. And then? And then this underground ad got banned by the government body Transport For London.
The argument was clear: you cannot encourage people to engage with a banned TV commercial.
🐈⬛David Sommerseth@mullvadnet BBC is about to learn something about the Streisand effect now ...
mossman@dazo @mullvadnet errmmm what does BBC have to do with this? No adverts on BBC, so I don't see how they're involved
Victoria 🏳️⚧️@mossman @dazo @mullvadnet they blocked it, people are talking that they blocked it and people are going to want to watch the ad
Jonathan Hartley@tragivictoria @mossman @dazo @mullvadnet the BBC can't have blocked an ad, they don't run any ads. It must have been other, commercial, channels.
@tragivictoria @tartley @mossman @mullvadnet sorry for my ignorance. I'm not a Brit and not living in GB ... Just saw TV and ads and thought of BBC.
@dazo @tartley @mossman @mullvadnet ngl i also thought the same. Kinda suprised me that bbc doesnt have ads? Our public television have ads
@tragivictoria @dazo @tartley @mullvadnet okay, time for a little eduction then - everyone who watches TV in the UK is supposed to pay a kind of tax (the "license fee") which is what funds the BBC as well as subsidising some of the social and educational content of Channel 4 (and maybe other channels, not sure about that). The BBC was historically completely non commercial and supposed to provide a service to the people, and at the same time it was given a lot of independence (the government isn't actually supposed to control it), which is why it was able to be quite groundbreaking in a lot of its drama, documentaries, public service broadcasting etc. (It was also the first broadcaster in the world and has continued to be at the technical cutting edge throughout its existence.)
Nowadays, governments have pushed political appointments into the management - and there is more pressure to make money by outsourcing production, selling shows to other countries, etc. so its independence is being threatened more and more. But there is still no advertising on any of its UK TV, radio channels or websites(*). We pay for it to do its thing, and most of us like it that way.
(*) There are some international versions of BBC World - notably in the US, of course - where they have ads in between shows.