Can't Escape Advertisements!

We, the consumers, are the victims of corporate conglomeration. Corporate conglomeration means when one company owns a number of smaller companies that are being controlled and operated independently, but are all managed by the main company. Therefore, corporate conglomeration has taken over every aspect of the world economy, from soda to food to hotels to gas. Our money is wasted on fuelling the businesses of corporate conglomeration. Media and film production companies ensure their success by using a variety of risk reduction strategies to make the most money from the biggest hits. David Grazian, the author of the book Mix it Up, argues "that decision making in the media industries is primary driven by the minimization of risk," (Grazian, 113). He highlights in his chapter six the strategies of risk reduction which include using as secondary market in way to generate profit from a cultural product beyond its domestic sale in its original format and using product placement as it happens to be a type of advertising but placed in a place we don't expect to see it. There are also other interesting risk reduction strategies, but this time I'm focusing on other risk reduction strategies that I found in Villaggio's cinema. Since thousands of people go to watch movies weekly in Doha, the cinema has become a perfect location for some businesses to advertise about their products and services. For example, Dr. Hassan Al-Abdulla, a well-known dermatologist doctor in Qatar, has placed a poster of his clinic in Villaggio’s cinema right in the center of the main entrance. So, that as customers walk into the cinema before even getting they’re snacks, they could stop and read about the services that he offers at Dr. Hassan Al-Abdulla Dermatology & Venereology Anti Aging Laser Center. There are also advertisements placed around the top of the wall. Cadillac, an American luxury type of car, has also placed an ad to advertise about their cars in Doha. You can’t escape looking at all sorts of advertisements when you’re in a movie theater. I recently went to watch a movie in Villaggio’s cinema, and as I was watching the commercials before the movie started, a Pepsi ad played. It was my first time to see Nicki Minaj’s Pepsi commercial. Nicki Minaj is an American rapper/singer. I must confess that I once heard her song Moment for Life, but when I heard her song again in the Pepsi ad, I liked her song more. Nicki Minaj’s song was played in a Pepsi ad; therefore it must be a form of using product placement. According to Professor Harkness, product placement is “a form of advertising where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads,” (class notes 02/18/2013). I found out from my online reading that Pepsi is doing a campaign called Live For Now “to amplify the company's longstanding ties with pop culture, said Brad Jakeman, who oversees the creative strategy for Pepsi's carbonated drinks around the world,”(Huffington Post). Pepsi decided to use a popular singer like Nicki Minaj to help flourish the brand’s name and gain it’s popularity back. Pepsi hopes to be number one on the beverages list, but Coca-Cola still is the top soda. The advertisement in this case is promoting both the singer and the Pepsi company. Maybe the song Moment For Life will gain more popularity because of the Pepsi ad, and maybe a lot of people will feel like having Pepsi after watching this advertisement.

Product Placement in the Arabic Music Industry

Product placement is advertising through non-traditional ways, especially by appearing in different cultural products of the media such as films, Television series, ...etc. In Hollywood, product placement is most famous for being used in almost every movie nowadays. On the other hand, in the Arab world, product placement in films is not a technique that is used as much. However, product placement has been highly associated with Arabic music industry for years. Product placement in the music industry has proved to be highly effective to the point that Rotana, one of the leading production companies in the Middle East, requires any singer that signs a contract with them to include product placement in his/her music video. Here are some examples for product placement in Arabic Music videos.  

Sony Xperia in Elissa's latest music video for her song "Ajmal Wahde"

Infiniti car in Elissa's latest music video for her song "Ajmal Wahde"

 

LG phone in Nawal Al Zoghbi's music video for her song "Aghla Al Habayeb"

It is also very common that certain companies would sign endorsement deals with famous singers or actors. For years, the most obvious endorsement deals were Coca-Cola's and Pepsi's deals with various super stars such as, Amr Diab, Nancy Ajram, Haifa Wahbi, Carol Smaha, Tamer Hosny, Cairokee, and many others. These deals end up in the production of different cultural products such as: programs, music videos, and films. All of these cultural products end up being an extended advertisement for these companies.

   

Coca-Cola's logo, cans, and red color all over Nancy Ajram's music video of her song
"Oul Tani Keda"

However, Coca-cola's presence in Nancy's music video isn't as ridiculous as Pepsi's campaign, as they produced an entire film and made sure they colored it blue. Bahr Al Nojoum or Sea of Stars is the name of the musical that Pepsi co-produced. Bahr Al Nojoum is the first Arabic promotional feature film. With no proper storyline, a lot of famous superstars, Pepsi made sure their logo would be on screen as long as possible. Here's a short clip from the film.

 

On the other hand, Coca-cola was smart enough to bring it's program, Coke Studio to the Middle East. A program they first launched in Brazil, then took to Pakistan, India, and lastly the Arab world. Coke Studio focuses on mixing two completely different genres of music in one song. The program puts more effort in presenting the audience with good music than rubbing Coca-Cola's logo in their faces. It's definitely a program that includes product placement, however, it respects it's audience way more than Pepsi's musical. Here's an example.

   

Naturalization in Sport

"Andrés Sebastián Soria Quintana, is a naturalized Qatari footballer who plays as a striker for Lekhwiya" This is the brief introduction of Soria's profile on most websites. Sounds weird? Sebastian = a Qatari name? Well, no, he is a naturalized footballer who now plays regularly for most of Qatar's national team matches and is also extremely popular at club level football. Turns out, that he is not the only one. At a football match that I recently attended in Doha, I noticed that many players had Christian names and did not look Arab as well. As a student of sociology, I found this particularly interesting since one would expect to see the best local players on the national team. So how did this major change happen? and Why?

 

Qatar's National Football team

Club football has contributed a lot to the exchange of players globally. Today, most major clubs world over have international players coming across the border to play for them. The major reasons for this of course are the financial benefits that they may receive and also, the feeling of being associated with a top of the league club. Globalization has had a huge impact on the sports arena. Players, professionals, staff, money and brands have all been and continue to be exchanged across borders at high levels. Football , or Soccer, has always been the number one sport in terms of fan following, television rating points and investments. As an effect of globalization, several players moved to different parts of the world where their talent could be harnessed and they had better opportunities to make money and develop professionally.

The idea of capitalism is of course at the heart of all this change. Club football is probably one of the highest revenue generating form of sport today. Corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising and communication so that their brand gets noticed by the majority. Most major companies like McDonalds and Coca Cola are official sponsors of world class events such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup etc. This gives them huge exposure which of course any major corporation would love to have. Corporations are known for their extensive support when it comes to subcultures and hence, sport is a major area of interest for all the big brands in the industry today.


                   
                                   The usual sponsors at most events

The process of naturalization is not really new but its just that there is a lot of focus on it today since many countries are practicing it. Several countries today have naturalized players representing various national teams. In Qatar, most sports have naturalized citizens playing for them. In football, table-tennis, basketball, swimming etc. there are several players who are not originally from Qatar. While many players are born in Qatar and perhaps have lived in Qatar all their lives, they wouldn't have been granted citizenship under normal conditions. But, when it comes to sport, this exception seems to be made easily. In class this week, we discussed about variance. It is important to note here that variance can go in both directions. It doesn't necessarily have to be deviant. The idea of naturalized sports persons can also be seen as a form of variance. The team demographics in general isn't deviant in any respect, but there is a level of difference that seems significant. For instance, at the beginning of the national anthem in the Qatar-Japan game, there were hardly any Qatari players who were singing the anthem. The reason being that they probably didn't know them in the first place.


                                           
           The band ready for the anthems

But this is an accepted culture in the world today. The idea of dominant culture is key here. In this case, the dominant culture is the culture of FIFA, that sets the rules and regulations for international football. Players too seem to make the shift without any major issues since ultimately they benefit the most. We discussed the idea of tribalization and de-tribalization in class last week. Given the huge financial incentives, many players don't mind de-tribalizing from their original communities and seek citizenship in other countries.

Still, for varying political reasons, FIFA has deliberately kept eligibility rules rather vague. Its Article 18 reads in full:
1. Any player who is a naturalized citizen of a country in virtue of that country’s laws shall be eligible to play for a national or representative team of that country.

This culture has been introduced and to some extent supported by FIFA and so the other countries just try to adapt and thereby take advantage of the dominant culture and make it look like they are merely adhering to the broader culture. Communication needs to be clear and definite.  Statements such as these need to be more specific and clear. As per this statement, any country could grant citizenship for a period of time and have a particular player represent their country. The homology of FIFA has begun to take a different direction though. Recently, they have introduced strict regulations on the naturalization process. For instance, a player must play at least five years of club football in the country before he/she can represent the country. Qatar has done a great job with following the rules and developing a strategy. Players like Sebastian Soria and others have been around in Qatar for years and they played for Qatar only after clearing the eligibility requirements. The Qatari crowd today loves Sebastian and he is still a key performer in most matches for Qatar. The video below shows how the country embraces Sebastian as their player. Notice the commentator's support too!

                              

While FIFA has set several regulations for this, there are other sports that continue to naturalize players for a short duration. This perhaps need to be re-thought and is in fact a complex debate since it deals with several socio-political domains such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, diplomacy, culture, belief and values. The global sporting arena would be interesting to look at in the coming years.