Cash Britain

Cash Britain is a new BBC program starting tonight following the pawn broking business in the United Kingdom but does this lighthearted show make light of a very dire situation people find themselves in, I have not watched the program but the very context of it as far as I am concerned is unethical.

The reason I feel this way is that institutions such as the BBC should not be making light of people inability to pay simple things like a train ride but mostly because this is a continuing effort from the media to say to people who are in financial trouble that it is ok to squander what little wealth you have by selling high value items at a fraction of their price for trivial things to be honest.

Free Advertising for Pawn Shops.

This documentary to me is nothing than free advertising for pawn shops and an attempt to remove the taboo around them, for decades shops like cash converters have been on our high streets but unless you literally have no where else to turn to these shops are largely avoided for the selling of items and quite rightly so they know that the people coming through their doors to sell are usually desperate and because the pawn shop is the last stop they always rip you off.

I have seen over the past couple of years since the 2008 crash that adverts are popping up all over the TV advertising we buy your gold and this is one thing because the companies are paying for these adverts to be aired but the documentary cash Britain is being paid for by license payers to the BBC and I don’t think that this show will show that the people who are using these services are being ripped off.

Ethical film producing

When making a documentary the ethics of the content should always be taken into consideration and in this case I don’t  that they have been, its bad enough that we have to sit through condescending adverts about how we can all be saved from debt by taking on more debt or suing the pants off anyone who breathes in your direction but when public corporations take it upon themselves to try and convince us that its fine to sell your family heirlooms at a fraction of their worth I find it upsets me. Many people will be watch this program because it comes from a trusted source and could well be swayed into thinking that its ok to sell what little security you have and that is what I find unethical. Cash Britain for me is the last straw in a long history of TV companies telling us its ok to sell everything that we own and all at a profit to the Auctioneers and now pawn shops.