Last year’s comedy hijack break won a richly deserved gold award for innovation at the 2010 Media Week Awards, so it’s not surprising that advertisers returned for more engaging fun around 2011’s Comedy Gala. However, this time the ads were not confined to one commercial break, but broadcast in multiple spots throughout the transmission.

Not all of the ads in the breaks had been hijacked by the two Carrs, which meant that viewers were well advised to stick close to their sofas during the commercials, if they wanted to find out which were going to be hijacked across the ninety minute-long show. The brands getting in on the action, and giving over their commercials to the comedians included Ford, EA The Sims, Cravendale, Lynx, Costa Coffee, Cadbury, Pedigree and 0800 Reverse.

Fosters, sponsors of comedy on Channel 4 had their “Good Call” bumpers purloined by snippets of Comedy voice over too.

The break no doubt delivered additional levels of attention for ads that appeared next to hijacked ads, but where not hijacked – such as Barclaycard Rollercoaster or Chanel Allure, because as a viewer, you just didn’t know when or where Alan or Jimmy would pop up next.

As the show went into each of the featured breaks, a voice over trailed the big name comedians still to come on stage and also let the viewers at home know that the comedy was continuing into the commercial space:

“Keep watching your Tellybox as Alan and Jimmy hijack the ads”

Or …

“But it’s break time now, with Alan and Jimmy doing some comedy fiddling with adverts!”

Agencies involved with the hijacked brands included ZenithOptimedia (for Costa Coffee and Pedigree), Starcom (Foster's), Carat (Cravendale), MediaCom (EA), PHD (Cadbury), MEC (Go Compare) and Mindshare (Ford and Lynx).

About Channel 4’s Comedy Gala

In its second year, Channel 4's Comedy Gala in aid of Great Ormond St Hospital, featured a spectacular all-star line up, including: Dara O’Briain, Jack Dee, Jack Whitehall, Jo Brand, John Bishop, Jon Richardson, Jonathan Ross, Kevin Bridges, Lee Evans, Mark Watson, Michael McIntyre, Micky Flanagan, Rhod Gilbert, Rich Hall, Sarah Millican, Sean Lock and Shappi Khorsandi. Plus a series of specially recorded video messages from Lady Gaga, Glee's Matthew Morrison, Russell Brand and Miranda Hart.

The show was an Open Mike Production for Channel 4 Television. The programmes and the ad break were commissioned by Entertainment Commissioning Editor Syeda Irtizaali with Addison Cresswell & Andrew Beint as Executive Producers and Anthony Caveney and Richard Ackerman as Producers for Open Mike Productions. Channel 4 Strategic Sales coordinated the hijacking.

Congratulations to everyone involved. Great stuff.