BBC 'slip' gave free advertisement to Dow Chemicals during Games' opening ceremony

London, Aug 11(ANI): The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was forced to relocate its cameras in its London Olympic Park studio during the buildup of Danny Boyle's opening ceremony , as it was providing free advertisement to controversial official sponsor Dow Chemicals, that is under a cloud for its involvement in the Bhopal gas tragedy.

BBC production staff was compelled to make the hasty adjustment after a Dow Chemical gigantic billboard wrap on the outside of the Westfield Stratford shopping center was visible to viewers through the studio window during the Opening Ceremony Countdown programme on Friday 27 July.

The staff was informed about the unintentional blunder, which breaks the BBC's editorial guidelines, in time to shift the camera positions for the BBC1 Olympics show the following morning, Saturday 28 July.

"As soon as we became aware that there was undue prominence for a commercial brand within camera shot, we changed the angle of the camera," The Guardian quoted a BBC spokesman, as saying.

The BBC London 2012 studio is positioned on top of container boxes with a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, affording a view behind guests and presenters of the Olympic Park and Westfield Stratford shopping centre, the paper said.

Dow Chemical, which has been held responsible for the killing of thousands of innocent during the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, has paid more than a million pounds for a giant billboard, to wrap around part of Westfield for a 12-week period covering the Olympic and Paralympic Games. (ANI)