After years of resisting commercial pressure to read ads, Neil Mitchell has agreed to sell his soul… for charity.  

As part of 3AW’s Good Friday appeal for the Royal Children’s hospital this morning, Mitchell has read an ad for top bidder Chemist Warehouse, who gave $27,000 to the Royal Childrens Hospital Appeal. He enlisted the help fo the Victorial Premier to read the ad, where Neil Mitchell, jogging, meets the premier in a park. They discuss vitamins. Total raised so far is nearly $1 million.

Professional voiceover artists, listen at your own peril. See the video from the OB below.

 Mitchell explained on air yesterday:

I have made a decision. My soul is for sale.

In 25 years on radio, I have never read an advertisement. I have had intense pressure from management at various times, and I refuse to read ads because I have believed they have the potential to undermine my journalistic credibility.

If I am copping money from Qantas, for example, and they end up at war with the federal government, can I really be independent in my comments?

That has been my decision, until now.

I want to sell myself here and now. And what’s more, I will throw in as a bonus (I sound like a salesman already) one of the most powerful men in Victoria who will help me do the ad. We will read it together; a double act. That man is the Premier, Denis Napthine. He has agreed.

So, if you would like to buy me and the Premier doing your ad campaign, give me a call.

But, you have to pay. You have to pay a lot of money.

I hope, for the kids, for the Royal Children’s Hospital, the auction begins here and now. Money to the Good Friday Appeal.

We have been throwing around for a new idea to raise money and this is it. It may even become an annual event.

I want to hear from businesses who would like Premier Denis Napthine and me to do their ad.

He has agreed, now here is the deal. You bid.

The winning bidder pays that money to the Good Friday Appeal, and tomorrow when he comes in to see me at the Appeal centre, Denis Napth

ine and I will make the ad.

3AW will write the script and we’ll get the sound effects and put together the ad.

The ad will be recorded live-to-air at around 10.30am tomorrow, with the Premier. Then we will replay it later in the morning.

So you get your business, your product, sold by two people who never sell anything – well, not products.

While most of Mitchell’s listeners understood the sentiment behind the gesture, one used it as a chance for a little dig, posting on the station’s web page: