Plain Talk or Plain Boring?

Fri, Jun 1. 2012

Editor: My friend Jomo Thomas, in his Plain Talk commentary, which is featured after the Unrendered programme on IKtv, gets his knickers in a twist in attempting to make a scathing attack on the St Vincent Brewery, for a TV commercial that promotes an ‘under the crown’ competition.{{more}}

The script shows a man leaving home to buy groceries, as instructed by his wife. She gives him a long shopping list and as he reaches the Supermarket he checks the list, checks his money and realizes that “water more than flour,” he does not have enough money to buy what his wife wants. In his “cattle dead, sell the chain” frame of mind, he goes to a bar, takes the money and starts buying Hairoun beer. The man becomes enraptured when he realises that the crown for each beer he buys is a winner. He is rewarded with groceries and other goodies, much more than his wife instructed him to buy and much more than the money could have purchased.

Brilliant script – Love it. I could not have written a better one myself. It is done with a sense of humour that good TV commercials often employ for effectiveness. Does Jomo really believe that Vincentians are going to do the exact same thing as the commercial suggests? Are we that stupid? Jomo, can’t you see the lighter and humorous side of this commercial or are you just seeing the “joke for school children, death for crapaud” side of it?

Surely, Vincentians don’t believe that Red Bull gives them wings, that reaching for Guinness is reaching for greatness or that Ralph Gonsalves is a Mohammad Ali when he asks, “What’s my name, Arnhim?”

Clearly the odds of winning in the Brewery’s competition are far less than the commercial suggests. So too with the Lottery games, but they advertise that a lifestyle change awaits when you buy a ticket. Is the Lottery hoodwinking the public? Are they being socially irresponsible? “The Brewery should pull the commercial.” Are you really serious? Where are you going to draw the line with this censorship you are suggesting? How is this commercial anymore insensitive than the numerous commercials put out by LIME, Digicel and COURTS when they have play and win promotions? All of them directly or indirectly beseech you to buy their products in the hope of a tangible reward – groceries, a holiday, a car, $1,000 a month for a year. It’s fair game, once they deliver the promised prize to legitimate winners.

If you analyse most effective commercials, they use humour, slice of life aspirations, parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy and double entendre to grab the viewer’s attention. In the case of this Brewery commercial, the scenario is clearly exaggerated. I don’t think that the vast majority of Vincentians would use their grocery allocated money to buy Hairoun beers in the hope of winning more than what their money could buy. What I do believe is that Vincentians wanting to buy a beer would probably choose Hairoun over competing brands because of the promotion currently being run. The message in the commercial is an attempt to reinforce that purchasing decision, not to encourage persons to buy Hairoun instead of groceries.

I often enjoy looking at Plain Talk, but in this case Jomo, you managed to make it Plain Boring. The next time you drink a Hairoun beer, check under the crown and see if you find your sense of humor.

Tony Regisford