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"9 Hypnotizes Viewers"
No, this is not about a promotion for Shane Acker's upcoming movie 9... or at least we here at FilmInFocus don't think it is. Via the always fascinating blog of the U.K. mentalist Derren Brown comes a link to a story from ABC News in Australia. Titled "9 Hypnotizes Viewers," the story details how the Australian version of A Current Affair, broadcast on Channel 9, booked a hypnotherapist to discuss the use of hypnosis in weight loss. The segment became controversial, however, when it slid into a broadcast of an actual hypnotherapy session, "complete with swelling lights and droning music" designed to put viewers in a hypnotic state. "Get in a comfortable position and trust the process," the therapist told the broadcast audience. The Australian Communications and Media Authority explicitly prohibits programming designed to "induce a hypnotic state" in viewers, referencing the outcry from media critics in the '60s and '70s over so-called subliminal advertising. Channel 9 protested the judgement, claiming that the segment was too short to actually push viewers into a trance, but the communications authority ruled against them and now stations are alerting their staff as to what can be considered simply too transfixing for television.
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