For three straight years, Nigeria’s integrated marketing communications has not failed to throw up controversies induced by adverts purportedly celebrating the Easter season but achieving the exact opposite at the end of the day.
Could this be by mere coincidence or design? This has been the question on the lips of many since the recent advert of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), captioned, ‘Jesus Paid Your Debt, Not Your Taxes,’ aimed at celebrating this very significant period in the Christian calendar, hit the media space few days ago.
For industry watchers, the pattern and the trend seem interesting; no single Easter celebration in the past three years had passed without some rumpus induced by such controversial communications.
For instance, on Sunday, April 17, 2022, one of the nation’s financial institutions, Sterling Bank, published some communication materials in major dailies to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ after marking His crucifixion on Friday, April 15, 2022.
In the advert, the bank compared the resurrection of the symbol of the Christian faith, Jesus Christ, to ‘Agege Bread,’ a low-grade edible popular among those in the lowest rung of the socioeconomic ladder.
Besides drawing the ire of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), not a few saw the ad copy as offensive, insensitive and a denigration of the very essence of the Christian faith.
It took some unreserved apology from the bank to soothe nerves frayed by the offensive post with the bank giving the go-and-sin-no-more clearance by CAN.
History again repeated itself in 2023 when FrieslandCampina, a popular player in the nation’s Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, put up a social media post depicting a mangled, leaking tin of its popular brand, Peak Milk, with a nail besides it. The image had the inscription, ‘Bruised and Pierced For Us,’ in celebration of Good Friday. While it was designed to celebrate the day Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross by the brand, it, unfortunately, turned out to be a celebration gone awry.
The Christian body, CAN, among many others, berated the FMCG company for using the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as a metaphor to promote its product on Good Friday.
Not a few, therefore, see the recent paid advert with the inscription, ‘Jesus Paid Your Debt, Not Your Taxes,’ by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as a clear evidence that no vital lessons were learnt from the Sterling Bank and FrieslandCampina’s ad experiences.
“This attempt at sensitising Nigerians to their civic duties by FIRS only ended up leaving a sour taste in the mouth. More worrisome is the fact that this is coming from an agency of government expected to be sensitive to communications that promote social cohesion, respect and religious harmony,” stated a marketing communications expert, who would not want his name in print.
The Lagos-based practitioner argued that it is increasingly becoming obvious that some brands and creative agencies are gradually letting down their guards.
“The briefing must have come from the brand before the agency created the piece. What I expected the brand to have done on seeing such creative is to simply disapprove of it or ask the agency to tinker with it in a way that such copy would not be found offensive to the sensibilities of those that practice the faith. There is no excuse for this type of ad, after all the creatives and the brand are from this part of the world and they know the importance individuals here attached to their religion,” he stated.
The practitioner argued that the culture is becoming entrenched and may continue for some time until the perpetrators begin to get heavily sanctioned for their actions.
Another practitioner does not see the development as ‘accidental.’ According to him, some of these things are done by the creative guys and their brands with the sole aim of getting traction for such brand.
“And you can see that, in this instance, this is being achieved because such copy has been the talking point since it was posted,” he stated.
While agreeing with CAN’s admonition to public institutions on the need to craft their communications with a clear understanding of the cultural and religious tapestry that define Nigeria, he, however, believes the trend of every Easter celebration throwing up fresh communications controversies may continue unless something drastic is done to nip the act in the bud.
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