The BBC is getting a lot of grief over its upcoming show ‘Britain’s Hardest Grafter’, which will pit 25 of Britain’s lowest-paid workers against each other for cash prizes in what they’re calling a ‘serious social experiment’.
To apply you need to be earning less than £15,500 a year (either through work or benefits/both), and the winner will receive that amount in one lump sum at the end.
Only problem is people are calling it “poverty porn” and suggesting the BBC is taking advantage of these people, with many comparing it to the Hunger Games movies (where poor people compete in a fight to the death until one survives for the amusement of the rich).
A Change.org petition objecting to the “degrading and exploitative game show format” has picked up over 4,000 signatures since Thursday.
I’m actually not too sure what the problem is here? It’s nothing like the Hunger Games in that no one is being forced to compete and, more importantly, no one is getting murdered. It’s also nothing like, say, Bum Fights which took the Internet by storm about 10 years ago because that show was also violent and made no bones about exploiting homeless people. This is just a bunch of regular, poor people with crappy jobs being given an opportunity to go on TV and make some more money instead of, say, working in McDonald’s until they die.
Let’s save the social justice outrage bollocks for things that actually deserve it.
