The Only Way Is Essex has changed dramatically over the years, but it seems this season’s format has really angered its viewers.
After Wednesday night’s final episode of the series, an army of TOWIE fans shared their opinion on how the reality show is constantly promoting contactless payments and that they are “sick of it”.
They were spurred on after Tommy Mallet paid a waitress with his phone, and the camera zoomed into the device.
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Viewers were not happy.
One said: “Sick of the VISA paying on #TOWIE yes we get it you don’t have to keep making a point of it.”
Another was so angry, it looked like she was shouting. “I HATE THESE CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS #TOWIE”, she said.
Another said how it was making them “cringe”.
Others couldn’t help but joke about how fake the show is, and compared it to the TOWIE star’s personalities. Ouch!
However, there is reason behind all of this.
Earlier in the year, Lime Pictures, who produce the show, and ITV partnered up with VISA, and said that the promotional activity would run across two series.
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The Senior Creative Manager of ITV AdVentures said: “We know from our previous work with VISA and the soaps just how powerful incorporating subtle behaviour into engaging programming can be and with the huge influence of TOWIE, it’s a perfect vehicle to showcase VISA’s new payment technologies to the ITVBe audience.”
So it sounds like it’s something that viewers are going to have to deal with.
Like it or lump it we guess!