Pascal Oparada
Animashaun Samuel Perry, a.k.a Brother Shaggi is a skit maker and great at his craft.
His engagement by Nigeria’s indigenous telecom operator, Globacom, to deliver on how great their data services are failed to convey the right message.
Apart from the superfluous acting by Brother Shaggi, the message conveyed by the actor didn’t deliver the right lessons.
Glo is struggling to tell subscribers that they are the best in data and voice, even though that is hardly the case.
The metrics may be in their favour as one of the biggest telecoms operators with the highest data subscription after MTN, but experience shows they hardly deliver what they promise.
The Plot
Brother Shaggi is getting ready for video conferencing and is being bugged by other members of his group who are also part of the conference to come online.
‘You go see me now,’ (you’ll see me soon) he said repeatedly to those begging him to come online for the meeting.
And when he finally got online, he was asked the stupidest question by singer Simi.
“What’s the one thing that you did that no one knows about?” she asked.
Brother Shaggi said he used to steal meat from his mother’s pot. His mother was within earshot and gave him a slap that could pass as a pat on the back.
The real message
The only thing Brother Shaggi could think of saying is that he is good at pilfering, stealing something from his mother, no matter how insignificant that may be.
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Everyone knows that every thief started taking something he or she thought was small and inconsequential and then graduated to the bigger ones.
Brother Shaggi telling everyone that his secret is stealing from his mother at his age is a wrong message to the younger generation.
This is a generation that believes that there are forms of stealing that should not be classified as one.
Internet fraudsters, otherwise known as Yahoo boys, have the convoluted belief that those they are defrauding are paying reparations for the slavery unleashed on Africans.
Shaggi’s mother missed the opportunity to also school his son, and his group who were watching on video, how stealing is not good. Since Shaggi’s group saw when his mother slapped him, it was an opportunity not well utilised.
Many will argue that it is not the intended purpose of the advert. An advert is not supposed to deliver moral lessons. Yes, but when you are trying to reach a mass audience, you may never know who is watching.
We know how children and young people love anything Brother Shaggi. It was an opportunity Glo missed to pull them in with the right message deftly delivered by Shaggi and Simi.
Sending the right messages either by advertorials like that of Glo delivered by Brother Shaggi is very important. It has failed to do just that.
Those who plotted the advert should have guided Brother Shaggi to tell the audience something that could inspire people to ensure they become good at what they do.
That’s not the first time brother Shaggi is endangering the Glo brand with his overacting.
He had once engaged in obscenity while trying to tell subscribers how good they can stream videos through the network provider.
At one point, he had told Shola Shobowale a.k.a Toyin Tomato that the reason he was calling is that he wanted to date her daughter.
Really? Is the only reason a great brand like Glo should engage a comedian to tell their audience that he wanted to satisfy his sexual urge?
Brand watchers believe that Glo and other brands, that engage celebrity ambassadors should embed in their advertorials lessons that this generation greatly needs.
