Gruen (previously known as The Gruen Transfer) is an Australian television program focusing on advertising, which debuted on the ABC on 28 May 2008. The program is hosted by Wil Anderson and produced by Andrew Denton's production company, Zapruder's Other Films,^[1] now part of CJZ. Anderson is accompanied by a panel of advertising industry experts including Russel Howcroft (originally of George Patterson Y&R) and Todd Sampson (previously of Leo Burnett).

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Quick Facts Gruen, Also known as ...

Gruen
The Gruen Transfer logo
Also known as	The Gruen Transfer Gruen Nation Gruen Planet Gruen Sweat
Created by	Andrew Denton Jon Casimir
Directed by	Mark Fitzgerald
Presented by	Wil Anderson
Starring	Russel Howcroft Todd Sampson
Composer	David Chapman
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of series	15
No. of episodes	167 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Andrew Denton Anita Jacoby Debbie Cuell Polly Connolly Richard Huddleston Sophia Zachariou Wil Anderson Nick Murray Nick Hayden
Producers	Jon Casimir Amelia Barry Sophie Braham Sarah Douglas
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	35 minutes
Production company	CJZ
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	28 May 2008 (2008-05-28) – present

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The title refers to the Gruen transfer, the response to designed disorientation cues in retail environments.^[2]

The show's debut episode drew an audience of nearly 1.3 million, the highest debut for an entertainment program in the ABC's history.^[3] The concept has been sold to TV production companies in the UK, Denmark, France, Italy, Portugal, South Africa and Spain; however, the program itself seems to be unavailable in those markets and is blocked on YouTube and Apple's iTunes store, with the message "Viewable in Australia only".

The Gruen Transfer was nominated for an AFI award for Best Light Entertainment Television Series in 2008.^[4]

A spinoff series, Gruen Nation, aired during the 2010 Australian federal election and again for the 2013 Australian federal election. A second spinoff series, Gruen Planet, took over from the fourth series of The Gruen Transfer on 28 September 2011, focusing on corporate and government global media strategies and public relations.^[5] Another spinoff series entitled Gruen Sweat examining the branding and marketing of the 2012 London Olympics began airing from 25 July 2012.^[6][7] The spinoff series titled Gruen began airing on 9 September 2015, following the original concept of The Gruen Transfer series.

Current segments include:

• How Do You Sell?: This segment every week looks at advertising tactics used by advertisers to choose one product over another. Topics covered include beer, underwear, chocolate and banks.
• Endorse Me: Wil Anderson gives the panel the challenge of finding a sponsor for people who are famous for all the wrong reasons. Examples include Carl Williams and David Hicks.
• The Pitch: Two advertising companies are given a brief to create an advertisement for an "unsellable" product. Previous examples have included whale meat, tourism in Baghdad, the beleaguered Australian Democrats political party, and a proposed invasion of New Zealand, which provoked a response from the New Zealand government and several NZ YouTube viewers, although the final episode of Series One provided some balance in the form of a promotion for tourists not to visit Australia.^[8] A controversial anti-discrimination ad by Sydney agency The Foundry to promote "fat pride", which depicted people telling racist and homophobic jokes, resulted in the ABC pulling the segment from the 13 May 2009 episode, deeming that it would breach the ABC's editorial guidelines.^[9]
• Ad of the Week: This is where Wil and the panel look at an ad and they discuss it and how effective it is.
• What is this Ad for?: Wil shows the beginning of an ad without identifying the product, then asks the panel to guess what it is for.
• What's Wrong With This Ad?: A semi-regular segment where Wil shows an ad, usually submitted by a viewer, then asks the panel what they believe to be wrong about that ad. For example, the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Heaven campaign emphasises low fat in its product, so a viewer commented that, in the ad, even after dying and going to heaven, you still have to worry about your weight.
• Space Invaders: A semi-regular segment in which a real-life example of a new or unusual space for advertising is discussed. Examples include sheep jackets, children's books and on slums. The panel are then challenged to figure out a worthwhile client for advertisements in that space.
• God I Hate That Ad!: A web exclusive segment introduced in series two where Wil will bring up a particular ad that he, or viewers, dislike and has the panel discuss it, whether it is bad or not, or why it is bad. In the end the panel decide whether it is a bad ad or not.
• What Does it Mean?: A web exclusive segment introduced in series two where Wil and the panel come to a consensus of what message an ad is trying to get across when it is not obvious.
• The Worst Ad of All Time (Gruen Polished Turd), The Worst Product of All Time (Golden Steak Knives), Personal Worst (Brown Logie): A segment where the panel judges an ad or product based on how horrible it is with the "winner" being announced at the end of the series (this excludes the worst product of all time as the winner for it wasn't announced). The "prizes" are satirical allusions to a vulgar colloquialism for the advertising and public relations industries: "turd polishing".

Panelists have included: Karen Ferry,^[16] Christina Aventi,^[17] Dee Madigan,^[18] Emily Taylor,^[19] Pia Chaudhuri, Carolyn Miller, Adam Ferrier, Sunita Gloster, Lauren Zonfrillo, Priya Patel, Annie O'Rourke, Camey O'Keefe, Kirsty Muddle and others.

In 2009, The Sydney Morning Herald felt that The Gruen Transfer represented "intelligence and substance."^[190]

In 2013, The Sydney Morning Herald thought that by Gruen Planet, the show's creators had got the franchise format "down to a fine art".^[191]

Ratings

Gruen returned to television in 2016 with 954,000 viewers,^[193] and in 2017 with 903,000 viewers,^[194] while in 2020 it received 943,000 viewers.^[195]

More information Season, Episode number ...

Season		Episode number
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
	1	1.287	1.273	1.121	1.204	1.182	1.058	1.302	1.314	1.386	1.456	–
	2	1.120	1.151	0.976	1.087	1.212	1.244	1.226	1.211	1.239	1.312	–
	3	1.177	1.227	1.407	1.197	1.341	1.280	1.600	1.503	1.571	1.540	1.358	1.391	1.482	1.407	1.448	1.403
	4	1.072	1.114	1.120	1.017	1.165	1.164	1.269	1.162	1.138	1.130	1.023	1.110	1.160	1.050	1.180	1.170
	5	0.931	0.793	0.794	0.918	0.906	0.810	0.917	0.939	0.946	0.913	1.023	0.997	1.018	1.038	–
	6	1.028	1.052	1.045	1.179	1.128	0.988	0.908	0.784	0.884	0.909	1.070	1.004	–
	7	0.974	0.915	0.900	0.917	0.926	0.902	0.904	0.904	0.897	0.948	–
	8	0.954	0.865	0.829	0.927	0.901	0.830	0.815	0.832	0.796	0.832	–
	9	0.903	0.773	0.793	0.806	0.838	0.813	0.849	0.816	0.840	0.718	–
	10	0.862	0.841	0.897	0.784	0.825	0.764	0.877	0.881	0.809	0.785	–
	11	0.855	0.874	0.825	0.827	0.730	0.695	0.744	0.741	0.732	0.749	–
	12	1.037	0.831	0.891	0.746	0.732	0.666	0.732	0.725	0.698	0.638	–
	13	0.657	0.702	0.647	0.602	0.577	0.618	0.539	0.573	0.468	0.526	–
	14	0.588	0.559	0.491	0.619	0.501	0.524	0.536	0.416	0.519	0.510	–
	15	0.436	0.532	0.484	0.415	0.427	0.458	0.480	0.514	0.215	–

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Gruen : AUS viewers per episode (millions)

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Source: Audience measurement performed by OzTam^[196]