Archive for June 2011
Marketing the revolution in Egypt
The last frame from a video produced by Vodafone's advertising agency after the Egyptian revolution
I’ve been reading a few posts from various sites, which have been dealing with the response of advertisers (as in companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi etc etc) to the Egyptian revolution. I’d thought I’d summarise the bare bones of the articles.
Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s article from a few days ago on this:
“Since thousands of protesters ousted former President Hosni Mubarak in a nearly three-week revolt, the enthusiasm for revolution has been redirected and repackaged for television ads, billboards and jingles selling products including hair gel, soft drinks and candy…
Ad spending in Egypt actually increased to about $329 million in May from $310 million in February, according to data from Ipsos, a global advertising and marketing research firm.”
The most interesting of these is a controversial video (which actually looks like it was intended to be a submission to an advertising awards show – it’s got engagement stats and everything) that was produced by the advertising agency JWT, for its client Vodafone. This strongly suggests by quoting specific tweets from Twitter & YouTube* that Vodafone played a role in the revolutionary solidarity at the time.
*user comments quoted are:
“Vodafone inspired us before the revolution by their power to you ad. it was touching and inspiring when they said “it’s everyone’s power” “[sic]
“The new Vodafone Egypt campaign is amazing inspiring a generation to change their country” [sic] – most importantly this the endframe of the whole video
Here is the video which has now been taken down from YouTube because of a ‘copyright claim’. It is still available on Daily Motion however:
Both JWT and Vodafone have since distanced themselves from the video and Vodafone has done so at the most length, which can be seen in the following statement which was published on the Brand Republic website:
“Vodafone Egypt denies responsibility for the video that circulated on social media channels including highlights of a Vodafone commercial. Hatem Dowidar, CEO of Vodafone Egypt, confirmed that the company does not have any connection to this video and had no prior knowledge of its production or posting on the Internet. He added that Vodafone Egypt is part of a global Company that has strict policies refraining associating the Brand name with any political or religious affairs of any country in which it operates.
“Dowidar further clarified that this video was produced by JWT company for its internal use and not for public display, and he added that Vodafone has never used this video and is not responsible for its messages or claims.”
Additionally both Coca Cola and Pepsi have also produced much less arrogant videos in the revolution’s aftermath which celebrate people power using some easily recognisable visual metaphors:
Coca Cola
Pepsi
Obviously these latter two adverts are interesting in a completely different way to the Vodafone video. These well-produced adverts are good examples of how the visuals can be used in quite an evasive fashion; whilst these images endorse the idea of change they actually visualise little else apart from the generics of people power. But considering no one can really predict with any certainty where Egypt is going politically this is nothing but good old business sense I guess.
Sources:
The Battle of Waterloo, its re-enactment, and some images of it
As mentioned in my previous post I went to a re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo on the weekend. Here are some of the other images. Rather bizarrely (and annoyingly) the aesthetic and the idea that I had for some of the project run closely parallel to the work of another photographer who has only just been unearthed to me. Not ideal at all. I need to go back to the drawing board and re-arrange my thoughts perhaps…
(yep I realise that there is some dust on my sensor too – haven’t had a chance to cleanse the images yet!)
Some deserters
Napoleon's cavalry charge the English
Skirmish in the forest
Senior officer from Napoleon's army
Peering into the dark
Role-playing
I just got back from a trip to Belgium where I was part of the re-enactment of the the Battle of Waterloo.
Although I was out on the battlefield with the men I was also living in an 1815 style military camp with the rest of the Allied forces trying to learn the ways of the 1815 military, light fires, follow orders, and hold muskets. Serious thanks to the brilliant 94th Old Scotch Brigade for allowing me to be embedded whilst they were part of the 1000 man re-enactment. Unfortunately I didn’t get to fire any weapons but we’ll have to save that for next time.
More to come but I thought I’d give you my self portrait of me being the action hero first. I have my mean face on and everything:
Self-portrait with musket and 1815 English military 'red coat' uniform
Day out in Rochester for the Dickens Festival
I went to Rochester a couple of weeks back to take in the glories of the Dickens festival. I find it exotic enough just getting out of London period but one thing’s for sure – when half of any town town have dressed up in Victorian costumes for a three day weekend it’s got to be a pretty amazing place.
I was only able to make it for a one day unfortunately but I still had a laugh.
An old couple and a pigeon
Rochester cathedral
The end of a Punch and Judy show
Child playing by a castle ruin
Some Dickens fans in front of a parked van
Fantasy armoury (with skull)
Men, waiting
Boy dressed in Victorian costume
Bill Sikes (from Oliver Twist) lookalike
Stoopid advert
Cultural stereotyping now comes in brightly coloured Japanese animation variety
Messing around with perspective: historical and otherwise.
Firstly my congratulations to Irina Werning for winning Burn’s emerging photographer award 2011. She is so cool. Here are some of her wonderful photographs from her series Back to the Future:
LALI IN 1978 & 2010, Buenos Aires [photograph by Irina Werning]
MARITA & COTY IN 1977 & 2010, Bueno [photograph by Irina Werning]
IAN IN 1984 & 2010, London [photograph by Irina Werning]
PANCHO IN 1983 & 2010, Buenos Aires [photograph by Irina Werning]
She is obviously very wicked.
There is another talented artist who also produces work which playfully deals with how the photograph can be used to visualise a sense of ‘history-ness’ and create nostalgia. His name is Michael Paul Smith*. Michael Paul Smith is a model maker whose mind is full of mid-20th century Americana. Using his considerable model making skills he has been creating small scale sets of an imaginary American town called Elgin Park that he cannot get out of his mind (it is reportedly located somewhere near Pittsburgh where he was born). After making the sets he then sources locations in the real-world which provide the background to photograph them against. These late naughties photographs of the 1960s look bloody REAL. Here are some examples of his work. Fantastic stuff:
My Childhood Home [photograph by Michael Paul Smith]
Newspaper photo: Corliss Dink’s ’37 Studebaker [photograph by Michael Paul Smith]
Edge of Town [photograph by Michael Paul Smith]
Michael Paul Smith with one of his sets and a background behind him
The NY Times wrote an article about him and there’s a paragraph that I think summarises the attempt of his work very nicely:
Driving Mr. Smith’s creation of Elgin Park were his memories of Sewickley, Pa., a real steel-mill town a few miles north of Pittsburgh. He spent his first 17 years there, and it still holds his heart. “Elgin Park is not an exact re-creation of Sewickley,” he explained, “but it does capture the mood of my memories.”
*My very talented illustrator friend Phoebe Dickerson told me about Michael Paul Smith. If you want some visual inspiration check out her very cool, and very funny, Tumblr blog.
A train to England
I’ve been working on this story on Britain’s railway enthusiasts for a while. At first I think I was working on this piece because of the novelty value of working with such a fantastic community, but the more I work on this the more I become overwhelmed with what the community is actually interested in: a way of looking at Britain’s history. This is something that I need to do a lot of research on, but I thought I’d share a couple of snippets of what I’ve been photographing recently…
