The Finnish Consumer Agency is part of a Ministry of Transport and Communications working group that is considering how the Council Directive on audio-visual media services, ie. the Television Directive, will be implemented in Finland. It is a minimum directive, meaning that regulations adopted in Finland could be more strict as well. Besides traditional TV and radio programming, the Directive concerns movies and programs ordered to a mobile phone, for instance.The Directive clarifies in what way and in what situations product placement may be used. It does not, however, do away with the well-established principle of consumer protection that advertising must be recognisable. A viewer must know if a program is trying to influence his or her buying behaviour.Indeed, the Directive aims at a clean break between product placement and surreptitious advertising. Product placement will no longer be secretive; instead, viewers will be openly informed during a program, either by text or a symbol jointly agreed upon, that the content includes product placement. If the use of product placement is not stated or if products included in the programme are needlessly emphasised, it becomes surreptitious advertising.

Finnish commercial TV-network, MTV3, took the documentary into their programming just based on the synopsis pitch. They then began showing trailers of it, and finally it premiered on prime time. Meanwhile, Finland’s largest commercial airline Finnair began showing the film on its in-flight selection on all routes, and one of Finland’s biggest coffeehouse chains, Picnic, showed the film in its stores for the whole of the Pink Ribbon month.In addition, extensive Facebook campaigning and direct emails linked to teaser trailers on YouTube, several magazines ran articles on the documentary, profiled the swimmers and featured the documentary on programme listings.

´Pink is the new Black’The awareness of the Pink ribbon campaign among men grew significantly, realised as a 20% increase in ribbon sales. It also became an excellent stepping-stone to continue involving men in the campaign in the following years.