Filmmaker Gray Fagan warned a brand that its cuts would sink the video, and by his account they did. In the approval process, the brand cuts exactly what it pays for when it buys entertainment. He told his story at a panel at Advertising Week in New York. The creators there agreed that brand partnerships fail when a company hires a creator for an authentic voice and then exerts too much creative control. “You're cutting out everything that is going to draw the attention,” the filmmaker told the client, who had edited key parts of the story out of the video.
An advertiser who funds entertainment is also paying for humour, tension and uncertainty, which have to survive the approval process, executive producer Colin McRae writes in a post from October 2026. A competition depends on the real possibility of losing, a documentary needs room for an unexpected ending, and comedy lives on people who misunderstand, overshoot or get it wrong. A change that takes away viewers' reason to watch, he argues, deserves the same scrutiny as a change to the product message.
For sponsored programmes on television and on-demand services, an EU directive sets a limit on content changes made at a sponsor's request. It says the content of a sponsored programme must in no circumstances be influenced in such a way as to affect the responsibility and editorial independence of the media service provider, that is, whoever bears editorial responsibility for the selection of audiovisual content. The Czech Broadcasting Act likewise protects the editorial independence of the broadcaster.
Jeweller Alexis Bittar runs his own series, Bittarverse
The satirical series Bittarverse, which pokes fun at New York's fashion elite, is published by the jewellery brand Alexis Bittar itself. Episodes run on Instagram and TikTok. The lead character is a cutting diva from the Upper East Side. She has an abused personal assistant. There is a lawsuit, an affair involving a Schiaparelli coat, even an attempt to murder someone with a New York bus. Throughout, the characters wear the brand's jewellery and handbags.
The brand cut scenes from Fagan's video, whereas on the Bittarverse set it is the owner of the jewellery brand himself who calls the end of takes. One muggy morning in late July 2024, an episode with stylist Law Roach was being filmed at the Guggenheim Museum, and when Roach improvised a line, Bittar called “Cut” and “Beautiful!”. Bittar owns the company himself and sees in that a freedom to take risks that other brands can only dream of. He no longer wants to play it safe, even if he could not afford the risk.
In 2026 Bittar's series won the Webby People's Voice award. According to the brand, Instagram sales rose by 252% in the series' first year, reports 10 Magazine. A sponsored piece in Ad Age, backed by the brand's marketing partner, describes a campaign that included in-store events and performance marketing as well as the series.
Banijay and Lindt co-own a competition for Italy's TV8
Treating a brand's programme as an ad and building it on a product message instead of a story is still a common mistake, according to Carlotta Rossi Spencer. Until August 2026 she led branded entertainment development at Banijay. In her test, a show that still works once the brand is removed usually has real entertainment value. Commissioning and renewal decisions, she says, are made by broadcasters and platforms that are increasingly driven by data.
For the broadcaster TV8, a free-to-air Italian channel, the Banijay group announced a second series of the competition Maître Chocolatier in March 2024. Banijay co-owns the format with the chocolate maker Lindt. In the show, pastry chefs compete for a place on the brand's team of master chocolatiers and again create the Lindor praline.
The Italian food site Dissapore quotes a notice that the show contains product placement for commercial purposes. In its headline, it wrote that the show is entirely dedicated to a single sponsor. “People watch it and they're like, I didn't realize that was an ad. And that's the best compliment I think you can ever get,” Fagan said at the New York panel about videos in which the brand gets involved right at the start of development.
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