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.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

let there be light...

What the hell err… heck is going on with the electricity company/corporation of Ghana? Is there a power crisis that we the alleged “good people of this country” are unaware of? Over the past month power supply in my house has been as erratic as the Zimbabwean election results.

The people just take us for granted don’t they? They just cut the lights off and switch them back on whenever they like! What’s the problem? Is the dam drying up again? I seriously hope not… especially with all the immense rain we’ve been having this month… but even if the dam is drying up, cant they tell us? I mean, if it’s something that necessitates a power rationing system at least they should let us know… what’re they afraid of? Public demonstrations?

I can understand that they might be scared to even whisper that we’re going to have to ration power AGAIN after all we have been through so far, agreed. But who says that just cutting power off unpredictably is a more sensible course of action? What annoys me is that the thing doesn’t seem to have any pattern… they just turn it off and turn it back on whenever they feel like. Sometimes it’s like they forget that they’ve turned off the electricity in certain areas… and they just leave us hanging, feeling hot, sticky, sweaty and irritated, wondering what’s going on and why we haven’t had light for 6 hours or more. No prior announcement, nothing. Other times, it’s like they cant figure out whether to turn the lights off or on, so it’s off for two minutes, then is back on for a second, then it’s off again…and then back on! It’s like two people are fighting over whether or not to turn the lights off in that area:

“I say turn the light off in achimota! Oh massa why? My wife will be ironing by this time, do spintex! Oh my friend, u no know say my house dey spintex? I say achimota!”

So why are our lights being cut with no explanation? It wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it was being done systematically with a recognizable element of logic to it, but that’s the problem: it’s done anyhow! By heart! We’re just being taken for granted because the fine people at ECG don’t see it fit to render an apology or explanation… or even an excuse! Can you imagine? They haven’t even tried to cook up a feeble excuse for it… we are not that important eh?! At least something along the lines of “oh, it is just being brought to our attention” or “people are stealing the cables” or “there was a problem with the transformer” or even the infamous “plans are far advanced to resolve the issue!” at least something to make us feel psychologically things are being fixed even though we know that the “plans” will probably be in the pipeline for much longer.

I hate to think about what would happen if we hadn’t developed a culture of connecting our computers to UPS stabilizers and so forth… the number of home appliances that people have reported damaged due to this erratic power supply is saddening. We should be able to hold ECG accountable for the damages… you break it, you fix it. No be so? This brings me to a most pressing question: Can the ECG be sued? Maybe they can, but we just don’t know it yet… can they be sued? Because in the wonderful democratic nation of America, where anything is possible, some teens sued a burger joint for making them fat! So tell me, can we sue ECG? Because I will gladly sue them on behalf of every tax paying Ghanaian, (and even the non paying ones) for everything from negligence, to causing damage, loss of property and even for unnecessary sweat and mosquito bites; from all those hot nights when we have been forced to open windows and doors for circulation simply because without warning or apology our lights had been cut. And stumbling around in the dark, you and I are left wondering “ahh! these ECG people paaaa! When will the light come back?”