Okay, remember the options I gave at the beginning of this thread as to how there may be no OCD contestant at all, and how they may play it, set up by Gretel's comments?
Ten have apparently (this comes from a report of a forum user who apparently has seen it on the news - so we should take it with a grain of salt, because I can't find it on Google) now come out and backflipped, saying that there is no OCD contestant and the whole thing has been a terrible misunderstanding by the evil press, and that Kris Noble used the term "Obsessive Compulsive" in a way that was flippantly descriptive, not literal. The following press attention the show received, during which it allowed the coverage to continue (and even had Kyle and Jackie, who are on the Ten payroll, run with the "news", and where Gretel assured us she would read up on the condition and confirmed it by telling us it was to provide a "microcosm") was all completely unintentional on their part. The executive producer just held a press conference for journalists taking notes on any detail of the new bunch, and just used the term "obsessive compulsive disorder" for the hell of it, having no idea the term could be used to surmise there was someone in the house with... well... obsessive compulsive disorder.
As I said, I'd like to see this in print, at least, and I haven't. But I think this makes sense that they would now do this (I thought they'd leave it til opening night if they were going to backflip, but with the mental health watchdogs coming down on them, and the PR not really taking off like they thought it would, anyway), it doesn't surprise me too much. But we'll see, I'd rather at least see or hear the news from a news source, not a BB forum member.
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RedEye Platinum Boarder
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Re:BB OCD HYPE - 2007/04/14 19:15 I've caught a few of the teaser ads, so similar to last year (and the year before).
A few years ago a friend gave me a copy of Toni Johnson-Woods' book Big Bother, written in 2002 after series one. I re-read it again recently and the show she describes is a very different animal to BB06. Was a bit of a nasty reminder of just how unpleasant last year was.
I was wondering how the producers would handle this season after last year's controversies, and whether they'd go for a 'back to basics' approach--how naive am I? Seems like BB is increasingly turning into 'shock TV' a la Jerry Springer. An OCD contestant would really be a new low.
I'm glad you're doing 'The Eye', Aaron ... although now I'll definitely have to watch
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MelissaXO Fresh Boarder
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Re:BB OCD HYPE - 2007/04/14 20:42 I'm just looking forward to EOBB, I would have given up on the show last year if it wasn't for finding that site! But I've gotta say that I'm surprised how nobody seems to be really talking about the show this year. I'm not saying that having an OCD contestant is okay, but it wasn't much of a scandal. By that I mean that I didn't even know about it til I read it here and even though it's in the papers apparently, I haven't come across anything! But I haven't come acros anything at all... just those stupid ads with Gretel wearing those bad sunglasses, and the mystery guy (and we can all assume whoever it is isn't going to be too life changing - this is BB afterall!) I asked a few people I know if they'd heard about the OCD scandal and they were basically like "who cares?" because nobody gives a flying rats about what BB is doing anymore.
But at least I get to read Eye On Big Brother!
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aarondarc Admin
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Re:BB OCD HYPE - 2007/04/14 21:24 Welcome, Mel, for another year of Big Brother action!
Yes, I think you're quite right in that on the whole, there has been little ripples so far in the media pool from the PR finger of Mr Brother. I've been away from the site for a week or so, and so too the media, and so when I heard about the OCD contestant it was from whoever it was that posted about it in the forum board, here. So, I jumped on it (heaven forbid I miss a BB scandal!), and searched it, and it's certainly there in the news. However, it hasn't quite made too big a splash, and yes, nothing so far has. The other news story is that the house will be green-friendly this year, but even that has achieved very very minimal press coverage - much les than the OCD contestant (though that's actually a good thing if they do that, I think, good on them... even if it's to capitalise on a current media topic, of course!). So it's still all much ado about nothing, and with one week to go, that's a little strange, there should be a bigger buzz. I've been saying for a while now that I think this could be a bad year for BB, and there's a part of me thinking it's going to swing this way. They really are going to change the tone in some respects, I'd imagine, but even if they are, they haven't really presented it to the market, and certainly not ina way that has achieved much interest. Gretel's Rove appearance may change this, but we'll see. I would have expected more, by this stage, and I'm personally stunned that they haven't repackaged the design, so far (but that could be a patenting issue, who knows, I think they're branding is somewhat dicatated externally, I don't know). I'm actually crossing my fingers very tightly for this show (in so many more ways than I can even explain here!!) but it's all early days, as far as the actual show goes (it hasn't started after all!) and we're only deciphering pre-hype - but so far that pre-hype has been a little lacklustre, for one reason or another. And as someone in the advertising industry, I'm always going to go into, "Oh, I would have done it this way - what are they doing it that way for?" mode! But I do think that, I have to be honest. There's so much they could have done, the "change" this year should have been presented very boldly, and it hasn't been. To be honest, it all feels like an internal conflict, as if there's not been a real committment to any one direction, it's all a bit soft (which is what you'll find happens often, when a product is torn in any way on how to go about it). And I recently came to realise (through an inside glimpse into the set up of the show) that BB really is quite divided in some ways by some conflicting agendas - not everybody has the same idea, and I have come to wonder if time is running out for there to be some cohesion. There are some good ideas and some bad ideas in there, and when it comes to production and the translation of this into image and marketing, there needs to at least be a point where these sides click into place, if not resolve to one vision or idea. I'm suspecting this may not be the case.
And I've also long said that this "bit of this, bit of that" technique that Ten seems to love (to please as many demographs as possible) actually achieves the opposite to what it's trying to by failing to grab anyone with anything. So maybe there's a bit of that - I'm not really sure what they're trying to "say", it doesn't really say anything, so far. I think that's dangerous for them, Tench and Con Test both flopped with this approach.
THE MIC 
and the mystery guy (and we can all assume whoever it is isn't going to be too life changing - this is BB afterall!) I asked a few people I know if they'd heard about the OCD scandal and they were basically like "who cares?" because nobody gives a flying rats about what BB is doing anymore.
