The recent allegations that Channel4's Celebrity Big Brother contestants have been racially abusing other participants, and the involvement of Ofcom have put Carphone's sponsorship into doubt.
Housemates Jade Goody (former BB contestant), Danielle Lloyd (former Miss England and WAG of Teddy Shrringham) and Jo O'Meara (former S-Club 7 member) have been seen making fun of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.
On Monday night, Jo made the comment that all Indians were thin because they were always ill due to undercooking their food. Danielle complained that Shilpa had touched her food "You don't know where those hands have been."
Jade Goody's mother, Jackiey [yes, that's how she spells her name] couldn't pronounce Shilpa's name, and called her "the Indian" instead.
Ofcom have so far received upwards of 21000 complaints in the past 48 hours regarding the alleged racist comments, Leicester East MP Keith Vaz raised the issue in the House of Commons, and Hertforshire Police are investigating two death-threats to housemates received via email.
The whole furore surrounding the issue had caused Carphone Warehouse to supposedly rethink their £3m sponsorship deal of the Big Brother series but following the news earlier this morning that audience figures are going up (possible as a result of the supposed racist abuse) Carphone have denied the rumours.
The nightly highlights programme received 4.5m viewers on Tuesday, from 3.5m the day before, and 3.9m a week before that.
"We are against racism in any shape or form. As sponsor we have no involvement in the content of the programme, but have full faith in Channel 4 and that they will deal with any serious allegations such as this in the appropriate way." a carphone spokesman said.
On Monday night, Jo made the comment that all Indians were thin because they were always ill due to undercooking their food. Danielle complained that Shilpa had touched her food "You don't know where those hands have been."
Jade Goody's mother, Jackiey [yes, that's how she spells her name] couldn't pronounce Shilpa's name, and called her "the Indian" instead.
Ofcom have so far received upwards of 21000 complaints in the past 48 hours regarding the alleged racist comments, Leicester East MP Keith Vaz raised the issue in the House of Commons, and Hertforshire Police are investigating two death-threats to housemates received via email.
The whole furore surrounding the issue had caused Carphone Warehouse to supposedly rethink their £3m sponsorship deal of the Big Brother series but following the news earlier this morning that audience figures are going up (possible as a result of the supposed racist abuse) Carphone have denied the rumours.
The nightly highlights programme received 4.5m viewers on Tuesday, from 3.5m the day before, and 3.9m a week before that.
"We are against racism in any shape or form. As sponsor we have no involvement in the content of the programme, but have full faith in Channel 4 and that they will deal with any serious allegations such as this in the appropriate way." a carphone spokesman said.
Channel4 has said it will "take necessary steps" and may well remove any housemate responsible, following a conversation between Carphone boss Charles Dunstone and Channel4 chief executive Andy Duncan.
Carphone are said to be in ongoing discussions with Channel4 but wants the producers to tone down the casting and editing of the fly-on-the-wall show to put less emphasis on extreme characters.