by Uche Briggs

On the flip side, the ‘Glo 3-in-1 Multi Recharge Promo Ad’ with D’banj as lead is indeed cringe-worthy.

One thing is certain regarding Globacom’s advertising practice – the company is audacious. While multinationals and corporate giants outsource their advertising to agencies, Glo has relied heavily on an internal creative team – a strategy that has its advantages as well as disadvantages. Globacom’s adverts often oscillates between extremes of ‘Bold & Riveting’ and ‘Crass and Insensitive’.

When the telecoms giant gets it right, they shine brightly (See their ‘Borrow Me Credit series here, here & here). When it is wrong however, it is painful to watch (See the use of rapper MI here). Two of their relatively recent adverts present fodder for this analysis today.

Let’s consider the delight that this ‘Good Education, Great Nation GloEducation’ advert is.

From the theme, to the colour, the film noir expressions, the lighting, the photography and the storyboard, everything bears the unmistakable touch of brilliance. This advert is a textbook narrative on how to seamlessly situate a celebrity within advertising and achieve such effortless symbiosis. The irrepressible Wole Soyinka is in his element, touching on the very subject that very few people alive, or dead, are more qualified to speak on. The quality of his voice is enhanced by an audio production that obstinately refuses to falter. I am in love with this advert. This isn’t the only occasion where Globacom demonstrated aptitude with celebrity endorsements. This one with P-Square is another testament to that fact.

On the flip side, the ‘Glo 3-in-1 Multi Recharge Promo Ad’ with D’banj as lead is indeed cringe-worthy.

If the Unilever Sunlight Dishwashing Liquid Press Release can be debated upon heatedly, the ad directors at Globacom clears every doubt as to their total ignorance of the topical issues surrounding feminism, gender equality and sexism. If one can ignore the grammatical mishap at the 2second mark and D’banj’s -‘haccent’ it is difficult to look past the blatant objectification of women that pervades this advert. One is still in shock at the audacity of this advert.

It bears repeating: society is not a fixed construct. Everyday, we engage in interaction with the aim of negotiating our realities and redefining the norms. As the C2DE is the most important demography set for FMCG in Nigeria, the 18-30 age group is a recurring theme across categories. These are the young and unruly who are most likely having the conversation about what is acceptable and what isn’t. They are the ones on Twitter constantly asking the difficult question, making companies trend for all the wrong reasons and uttering heretofore unthinkable statements like: “Why can’t the man be the one to move into the woman’s house after marriage?”

The argument will be made that the Twitter crowd are a minority group and they don’t form the bulk of the buying populace. One agrees completely. However, having seen the effect of Two Step Flow of Information theory and the influence that said minorities hold over the larger populace, ignoring this group is courting failure.

At this rate, it isn’t far fetched to inquire from social media users during Copy testing – Is this ad politically correct?

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