Smirnoff agrees deal to be first sponsor of hit C4 series Faking It

Diageo’s Smirnoff is set to become the first broadcast sponsor of Channel 4’s Faking It series, in which ordinary people have to learn a new skill or profession in just four weeks.

The BAFTA award-winning series begins its fourth run this month. The first episode will review previous programmes and is expected to reveal what has happened to the classical cellist who trained to be a club DJ, as well as the public schoolboy who took up the challenge of becoming a bouncer.

The broadcast sponsorship will also cover the ten following episodes which will run through to December. One is due to feature an IT expert trying his or her hand at being a surfer. It is also expected that the new series will feature more recognisable household names in the cast of professional mentors, which have so far included hairdresser Trevor Sorbie and showjumper Tim Stockdale.

Dan Johns, communications planning director on the Smirnoff account at Carat, the media agency that negotiated the sponsorship, says: “Faking It and Smirnoff have a similar target market, the fit is fantastic.”

The RDF media show has in the past achieved audiences of about 2.4 million.