ARN’s KIIS brand safety reset opens with a masturbation joke
The Chris Brown clip puts a fresh spotlight on KIIS Sydney's bid to win back advertisers after a costly breakfast reset.
ARN has spent months telling advertisers its KIIS Sydney breakfast slot is ready for a fresh start. Its choice of social media clip to promote the new show features Dr Chris Brown discussing *checks notes* …masturbation.
In an Instagram clip promoting its new line-up of Brown, Amy Gerard and Jack Charles, Brown’s image appears over audio from a conversation with incoming co-host Gerard.
“There is no greater pressure cooker in life than giving a sperm sample,” Brown says. Gerard asks whether he was given “a naughty magazine”. Brown replies: “There's magazines in the waiting room. I'm on one of them.”
Look, the question is not whether Brown can tell a story about a sperm sample. Of course he can. It is why ARN chose that story to introduce a show whose commercial job is to reassure cautious buyers.
The leading media trade publication in Australia.
Get our top stories straight to your inbox daily by signing up to our Newsletter
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services.
‘More scandalous’
The clip was also played on Kyle Sandilands Live, the subscription breakfast show Sandilands launched after leaving KIIS. Sandilands had co-hosted The Kyle and Jackie O Show with Jackie ‘O’ Henderson before ARN terminated his contract in March following an on-air clash between the pair.
On the show, culture reporter Mary Madigan suggested the clip was an attempt to show a more provocative side of Brown.
“I felt like it was an effort to make him seem more scandalous,” she said.
Sandilands replied: “So they're running around telling everyone we're brand safe. We're going to be doing amazing corporate things with corporate brands.”
The cost of winning advertisers back
The clip lands as ARN works to resolve a commercial problem laid bare in its own results.
ARN said brand safety concerns linked to The Kyle and Jackie O Show accounted for $10.2 million of its year-on-year revenue decline in the first half of 2026. Chief executive Michael Stephenson told Mediaweek some advertisers had refused to buy spots in the program; others avoided KIIS or stopped spending with ARN altogether.
Stephenson said those advertisers were no longer ruling ARN out, but their spending had not yet returned. In the first half, the company held a 24.9% share of the metro audience aged 25 to 54 and an 18.5% share of metro radio advertising revenue. ARN put the gap at roughly $38 million a year.
That is the job Brown, Gerard and Charles inherit when their show launches on 9 November.
Look, one Instagram clip cannot establish whether an advertiser will buy the new breakfast program. It does show what ARN chose to put in front of brands and listeners while asking them to take another look at KIIS.
More from Mediaweek
The leading media trade publication in Australia.
Get our top stories straight to your inbox daily by signing up to our Newsletter
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services.
.png%3Fv%3D1789531401239&w=3840&q=75)
