By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson

In a new definition of a publicity stunt, Channel 4 and Honda have turned to a team of skydivers to tackle the problem of viewers tuning out of traditional television advertising.

On Thursday night, the broadcaster was due to devote an entire 3 minute 20 second break in the middle of Come Dine With Me, it’s dinner party program, to a live skydiving jump in which 19 stuntmen spelt out the carmakers brand name. Described as the first first live advertisement in modern times, the campaign is the latest by advertisers and broadcasters to find alternatives to the 30-second spot.

The development of the digital video recorders such as Sky+ and Tivo, which allows ads to be skipped, has forced advertising agencies and channels’ sales teams to collaborate on more innovative attempts to keep the viewer’s attention.

‘We wanted to create something unmissable,' said Andy Barnes, the broadcaster's Sales Director. 'This concept breaks the boundaries of TV advertising,' he added, highlighting a Channel 4 campaign called 'innovating the break'.

The campaign follows initiatives such as LG's 'Scarlet' campaign, in which the television manufacturer ran advertisements appearing to trail a glamorous new television show, which turned out to be a promotion for the design features of its 'hot new series' of screens.

Thursday night's live advertisement, while designed to demonstrate the power of television advertising, was backed up by a complex multimedia and public-relations campaign.

The campaign's developers - including Channel 4's in-house creative team, Wieden + Kennedy, Starcom, Collective and Hicklin Slade and Partners, - spend more than a month pushing the slogan of 'difficult is worth doing' before Thursday night's slot.

A poster campaign, a series of television 'teaser' advertisements and a website have been hacked up by a digital advertising press coverage. All are building up to a traditional 30-second advertising campaign, starting on June 1, said Ian Armstrong.

' The 30-second ad is alive and well', Mr. Barnes said, pointing to the data released this week which showed that commercial television had enjoyed its best April in five years.

For Honda, however, the elements surrounding the the core 30-second campaign are designed to generate the intangible buzz and the word-of-mouth advertising, Mr. Barnes added.

Thursday night's skydive would almost certainly go on Youtube, Mr. Armstrong predicted . 'Commercially, that's a fantastic result, as it means our marketing investment becomes more efficient because our consumers are doing the marketing for us.'