Saturday, May 24, 2008

I hear Tigo won the best telecoms company for this year? uh… duh. Well it sure wasn’t going to be the boys in yellow now was it? I’d have thought kasapa was in the running as well but I guess they don’t have as much a share of the market yet. So for now, it’s congratulations to Tigo. You guys must be doing something right. I wouldn’t know cuz I’m not on that network… yet…

But dwelling on tigo, something irks me a bit. I’ve seen their new campaign… the BE campaign. You know, be this, be that… be moved, be inspired. First time I saw it I thought to myself, they’re going at MTN’s GO campaign aren’t they? A little retaliatory advertising hasn’t hurt anyone yet. So this their new campaign is supposed to be, u know, “on point”. But lord help me I cant stand some of the ads. Don’t get me wrong I think the BE MOVED one is good, nice, brilliant actually. You know, the girl comes on, does a l’il dance, shakes what counts and it ends with a lovely smile. Cute. Nice. My worry is with the first one they had, and their newest release: Be Inspired.

The first one, I haven’t liked since it woke me up from sleep when I heard it on the radio. It’s supposed to be this chic singing… expressing herself thru song apparently. Nice concept on paper, only 2 flaws: 1.she cannot sing, and
2.the song she’s singing is tres’ horrible as the French in france would say.

So it’s not a very nice blend. The song starts off slow and low and just evolves into a loud disorganized scream. There’s no gradual melodic progression. One minute it’s low and dreadful, [there comes a time] and then the next second it’s a loud, really loud battle cry.[ be a hero!] I’m like Ebeeii oo, Sister!

The other one, their newest release, I saw on TV. I didn’t understand what I’d seen so I actually waited to watch it again a couple of minutes later… and till today I still do not get it. It starts off so beautifully: u see this handsome painter seriously going at his next masterpiece u know? It’s really very intriguing, his poise, his concentration, his paint mixtures… all that. And then you see the finished product… the supposed masterpiece and you’re like aah? [that’s actually what I blurted out…] What has the guy painted? Seriously, I’m still not sure what the finished painting is. is it a couple of cartoonish looking faces? Brown faces? So how come he doesn’t mix any brown paint? I mean… is it just me? And what’s all the green in the background of the painting? Are they on a farm? A field? What? I’m looking for answers people! I figured he was gonna paint the Mona Lisa or some renowned African painting that we could all relate to or something! And he actually looks so satisfied with himself and the painting. Unless I’m not as well informed as I like to imply that I am, that’s not a masterpiece, it’s a cartoon! an apprentice-piece!! The theme to it is BE Inspired? Inspired by what? as far as I’m concerned the painting is un-inspiring, he’s wasted his time… and my 30seconds! I can never get those precious seconds of my life back!

Ignore me… I’m ranting, it’s what I do. tigo has brought us some really good ads over the year and are infact responsible for bringing up some really interesting concepts and giving other people a run for their money.
The Be Moved ad with the dancing girl is near perfect; but as for the other two ads… they should… Be Gone!

Congratulations on your award Tigo people… keep doing what you do. It seems to be working.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Apt, Ann Ibo. It's time we got serious with the kind of ads produced in this country. Our ads should exude some creativity. I'm liking this.

JJR

Fatou said...

I'm not so surprised they were voted best, but I'm so sure some of their ads need refining.

They need to keep them real and simple. Trying to hard to impress messes things up. The dancing lady concept is natural and simple. Did you see the "Be a true fan" series? People didn't really get it, although I liked the idea. In the end, it didn't really make impact(my opinion)

Hey but shifting a bit; "live on the coke side of life" was a cool one, wasn't it?