Monday, October 18, 2010

WHAT MTN IS TELLING US

Over the years, there has been quite a few unforgettable adverts on TV. From inspirational to creative, hilarious and sometimes outrightly stupid, we’ve seen them all. In recent times, some companies have consciously invested in bringing creativity back to TV adverts. One that easily comes to mind is MTN the telecommunication giant. 
MTN literally raised the stacks with their adverts thus entertaining us while simultaneously selling their services. I remember ‘Mama na boy’ which I later heard was yanked off because some women empowerment groups thought it was discriminatory against the girl-child, well, like I told a friend, they should have changed it to ‘Mama na Twins”.
Then there was ‘Princess, I need you to read me my speech’, and then came ‘Merry Christmas Uncle John’. I also remember ‘Don’t step on my toes this time’ (the one in which Nollywood actor Femi Branch was having an imaginary dance with his babe who was in another location). Or who would forget ‘Step out to your balcony, I have something for you’. Okay, i’ve digressed enough.
The advert for MTN’s e-presence is why I am blogging today. A group of executives are at a board meeting, trying to decide the best way of getting their partners to town at the shortest possible time. They seem to all have ideas but their suggestions are either not cost effective or time conscious. In the end, a guy gives them the perfect solution – MTN Video Conference Call via e - presence. Now what’s the point you may ask?
Well, I think that company is like Nigeria in many ways. Most of the members on the Board are clueless as to how to attain defined goals, just as Nigerian leaders have no idea of how to lead us out of the wilderness.
Just as in many companies, Directors are usually the eldest in the organization, this is so that their wealth of experience can come to bear, unfortunately in the case of Nigeria, the grandmas/grandpas in powers have failed to show any intelligence. All we hear about are missing treasury funds, misappropriated allocations and what not!
In the MTN advert, the solution came from the guy who appears to be the youngest in the room, I hope someone is watching and learning. The youths should be given the chance to have a say, at least it’s their future that is at stack. Imagine IBB saying there’s nothing we can offer, when we all know that corruption as we now know it was legalised during his regime.
I’m disgusted when people talk about the good old days because honestly, I don’t remember those days. But then I take solace in knowing that one’s future is what you make of it!


Have a nice day bloggers.

1 comment:

Mbabazi said...

even here MTN is just losing it .there are even Facebook pages dedicated against it. they did a stupid add here for the yearly marathon with a lady with a shoe on her head. i dont know if its a lack of concepts or they r hiring the worst add agencies.mbabaziannet.blogspot.com