I am creating this topic as a means of showing people some of the good, bad, and ugly adverts found in Nigeria. For a weekly dose of this review, either go to http://nigerianadverts..com or email me with the topic "Subscribe Me" to [email]samizybiz@yahoo.co.uk[/email]. Please use that subject, I receive a lot of spam, and delete most without reading them.

Below are the two recent reviews, one an MTN review, the other, a Baba Blue review. Enjoy,

Advert Medium: TV

Product Name: MTN

Product Description: Multi-national GSM Service Provider, with Nigerian interests.

Producer Name: MTN

Advert Description:

* Visual: The new advert, which portrays a child walking for the first time, being motivated by the ring tone of her dad’s phone.

* Audio: “… You too can be the one taking giant strides…”

Advert Rating: 2 (poor) [1-5]

Like(s): The child is such a sweet and happy looking baby.

Dislikes: It either is the advertisers are not creative enough, or they think that we the observers are such great fools.

How can a baby take her first unassisted walk through about three meters of floor space? (If it is not the first unassisted walk, why should the parents act as if it was?). Never seen such steady legs for a first time walker, perhaps she was injected with MTN booster card. ;-)

Now, what did the father do there? Did he call a number? (Then why did the child have to press a phone button before a conversation was initiated?), was he only playing his phone ring tone? (Why, did someone say “Hello!” when the child pressed that button?), was somebody calling him? (Did he activate something on the phone before the call was able to get through to his phone?)
How I would have done it: Not taking people’s intelligence so much for granted, especially in very common things like the ways of babies. (You might try that when doing an advert on alien UFO analysis)

Other Comments: MTN usually produces a lot of great adverts but also produces some sloppy ones sometimes.


GOSSIP COLUMN:

I would so much have loved to gist you (my buddies) on the great market share battle between The Punch and The Guardian, as evident in their online strategies and manoeuvres. But, I want to be a little patient so that I can give you a juicier and more complete gist - I am only waiting for one thing to happen. ;-) Trust me.

Have you seen the new Cow Bell sachet, I mean the one sold for =N=20.00? What do those guys at cowbell think their consumers are, bunch of blind and I-don’t-give-a-damn-how-gullible-you-think-I-am crowd? C’mon!

Why would anyone double the size of a product’s pack, but retain the quantity of its content and its original price. I think it is a rather big price to pay (the raw material and production cost of the extra size of the sachet) for the assumption that the customer is so naïve that he will come running to buy your products simply because he has seen an over bloated sachet.

For me I was so pissed off that I switched to a rival product However, I still prefer the Cowbell chocolate (my first chocolate-drink-in-sachet love, just wished they had not done something so stupid).


PIDGIN COLUMN: (new)


Na eny tin wey I want, na im I go dey talk for dis column. I sorry for una wey no dey fit read pidgin inglish. I also know say I no too dey coded for this pidgin inglish, so anybody wey wan helep me re-rite this column for beta pidgin dey free to rite am, com send am to me for my email wey dey for the nyash of dis page.

I dey bow for some kain proverb wey my pipple dey talk oh. Like e get one way say “Na the smell of mess na im we go use know how de shit take sweet reach”. You sef, think am now, de proverb no make sense give me at all, I wonder who first produce dat kain proverb sef. Anoder one talk say if dem tell you proverb, com interpret am give you, dat one mean say de money wey de use marry your mamma na waste. Abeg! Abeg!! Abeg!!! Wetin consine agbero consine overload.

My pipple, e go better (na poor man praya be dat). Instead say make we die, make God give us powa, make we continue to dey struggle and to dey hustle, at least if we no see seat for molue, we fit still join de 99 wey dey stand.

Welcome To Nigeria.

Advert Medium: TV

Product Name: Vicks Blue (a.k.a. Baba Blue)

Product Description: A mentholated candy that comes in blue wraps (Medicated Throat Lozenge – in their words)

Producer Name: Procter & Gamble Nigeria Limited

Advert Description:

* Visual: A court scene where the defending lawyer was helped by “Baba blue” to win a court case for his client, who was actually guilty as charged.

* Audio: “I swear I no go do am again… HENN!!!?)


Advert Rating: 5 (Excellent) [1-5]

Like(s):

These comments (“Now I go show say this man innocent!”, “Discharged and acquitted!”, “Baba Blue thank you oh, I swear I no go do am again… HENNN!!!?)
The woman behind the acquitted man, with her mouth WIDE open, on exclaiming “HENNN!!!?”
The look on the acquitted man’s face after the “HENNN!!!?”
Dislikes: None

How I would have done it: Not better

Other Comments:

You rarely will have that kind of court scene played out in real life
Why is it a.k.a. ed “Baba Blue”, maybe if we had a different a.k.a., we might see people with sonorous or tingling voices coming to do the advert (like some of our artistes)
I wonder what advised the use of THAT Baba in the advert (Not saying he is bad though)



GOSSIP COLUMN:

I am sorry, I didn’t write last week, I was so busy (My company was organizing a training for one of our clients on a software application we just setup for them), and lazy (I couldn’t just sit down on my system, after each day’s stress and write ONE thing). Anyway, today (Monday) is a holiday, and my younger sister is doing the cuisine (She came on Friday, and will be leaving today – wish I could hold on to her a little longer), there fore, I can spare a few minutes to write this week’s edition of nigerianadverts. Last two weeks something happened (I wanted to gossip about that last week – couldn’t), GLO (the Service Provider I use) sent me some free credit and sent an SMS to that effect, it reads: “YOU HAVE RECEIVED A CREDIT OF 0.01 NAIRA” From: 7810 6:58 12-OCT-06. I was pissed (to say it mildly), how will GLO be spamming me for a stupid 1 kobo, whatever am I going to Use that for? Please if anyone has an explanation about what I did to deserve such generosity, I will be glad to know. ;-)

Again, I hear that GLO is offering free midnight calls to their subscribers, I have not seen one single advert with respect to that service (except the easytalk advert – that you are required to pay a certain monthly allowance). But trust me, I am a ogbonge Nigerian “Awuf no dey purge” ;-). I went on an investigation tour, and discovered (so I was told) that to use the free midnight calls thing for totally free (not easy talk), I have to switch to the “Classic Plus” package. Well I did, and was so happy that finally I can join the million upon million people wey dey make free midnight calls. But, unbelievably I have not been able to make ONE single midnight call, I keep hearing this annoying voice “Sorry, your call can not be completed at the moment, please try again later”, yes a never ending “later” whether I try by 12:30 am , 3:00 am, or 4:30 am, I will always be politely asked to call again… “later”. IF IT IS NOT WORKING, PULL DOWN THE SERVICE!!! IT IS ANNOYING!!!

Please, somebody help me to communicate that to GLO. Thanks buddies.


PIDGIN COLUMN:

For pidgin column today, I no know de thing wey I go yan sef, I dey tink weder make I remove dis part from dis issues wey I dey give una (I still dey tink am). Anyway, my fellow Nigerian una don see as Nigeria don wuowuo reach now? I dey fear small sha (I dey fear well well). Tank God say I dey live for Lagos, any small ting, I go jus run go Cotonou go kak. ;-)

Abeg, make una helep me ask gofment say which time dem won finish that Lagos – Abeokuta express road (for dose of una wey dey Lagos), I don tire well well for de go-slow wey dey always dey there. You dey go work, before you go reach office, you don alredy dey stressed up, talkless of de time wey e go dey reach Guiness Time (17:59). Abeg make una tell gofment say dey ting dey disturb productivity.

I also learn say if we wan make our computer dey last well well, make we dey do regular clean-up for de computer both internal (software), and external (hardware). I don be ogbonge for computer now oh! I go teach una small next week, make una joli this week well well, “man pikin no be fire wood” ;-).

Welcome To Nigeria.


“Live each day as if it is the last”

Wow, wicked man, thanks. . .

Quite entertaining, i enjoyed it. U're somewhat like me, an advert critique.

I really like this thread. It’s true there are good and very ugly (disgusting) adverts in Naija. Why did a used the ugly word “disgusting?” Well truth is adverts are supposed to entice your interest in a product, make you love the advert and then love the product subconciously. But what most Nigerian ads do is annoy. Those radio adverts especially make me tune to the next frequency whenever they come up on air. This gets even more disgusting when they think they are trying to unite Naija by getting the 3 major tribes in an advert and then go find an Igala man to do the igbo man’s accent then go find a Tiv man to do the Hausa man accent. First why the fake accents, second why can’t you get an original language speaker to do it!

I miss those old days when quality actually meant something to Nigerian broadcasting, Remember the Planta adverts, the Bagco super sack adverts and many more. The little hope we have is probably online. I’ve seen adverts by http:// and http://konga.com on Youtube and I think they are really good and send the right marketing message. TV websites like http://9flix.com are developing specific interactive ad platforms for such e-commerce companies. Thanks God online and mobile is the next frontier and with such young innovative minds, Nigerian video advertisement probably won’t suck like it’s traditional counterpart.