The similarities are hard to miss

The BBC has taken a sly dig at Channel Nine over a Today promo that looks suspiciously similar to one that the British public broadcaster ran back in 2016.

A recent ad for Nine’s flagship breakfast show features hosts Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner speaking directly to their viewers through the screen. It’s a cute concept, in a vaguely Orwellian kind of way.

The thing is, the execs at Nine weren’t the first ones to come up with this idea. The following is an ad for BBC Breakfast, and you’ve got to admit… it’s uncanny.

Plagiarism is one thing, but this is just lazy. Channel Nine didn’t even bother changing the name of the idiot burning his toast!! Classic Jack, always with the toast.

In any case, the BBC eventually got wind of the Nine promo, and yesterday tweeted a side-by-side comparison that really drove the similarities home.

? We thought this looked familiar!!! ?? pic.twitter.com/tiZuDaCQVE — BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) January 19, 2018

Channel Nine has since released a statement saying that “the promo, one of several campaigns to promote Today, ran for a short period over our summer break. It has not appeared on air for more than two weeks.”

As apologies go, it left quite a lot to be desired.

It’s unclear at this stage whether the BBC intends to take any further action. Honestly though, I think we all know how this is going to end.