You’re Feeling Very, Very Sleepy (The Australian Hypnotism Affair)

The doldrums of August have come around. The industry is in state of rest and I, for one, am trying to resist the temptation of being horizontal all day in the sun (though it should be said, with my Viking-like complexion, the sun and I have an understanding that we only meet on rare instances and then, only in disguise).

That all is a round-about way of saying that I hope to return to a steady diet of analysis and insight in September but for now, it seems that recent posts have been a little lighter in intellectual heft. Following that trend, here is an interesting one for you:

Channel Nine in Australia was just found guilty of attempting to hypnotize its viewers.

Yep, let that one sink in…

From The Australian:

BROADCASTING authorities have found A Current Affair guilty of breaching the TV code by trying to hypnotise viewers.

This is no joke. After a lengthy investigation, the Australian Communication and Media Authority has today ruled on the rare breach and ordered Nine to retrain staff.

In October last year ACA host Tracy Grimshaw opened the show and said: “If you’d like to trim down, well settle in, get comfortable and concentrate, [our hypnotist] is
about to hypnotise your kilos away.”

What followed was a typically silly segment on the latest diet fad – using hypnotherapy to “Think Slim” in which the hypnotist promised “the nation” would lose weight, guaranteed, through his tricks.

Read on…

(ht: James Kane)