If you don’t want to read all this shit … just skip to the ad [and the point of this post] at the bottom of this page.
However, if you want the context and backstory … read on:
So I saw this ad yesterday. Yes, yesterday – which means this may be the most topical post I’ve written in 20 years.
And while it is supposedly for Emirates Airlines, the reality is it’s a Dubai Government ad.
Look I get how important tourism is to the nation …
I also appreciate how instrumental Dubai has been in helping change the perspectives of the Middle East …
But while they have been incredibly successful in doing that, the situation in the Middle East has impacted its appeal … as have the claims the Government are clamping down on anyone who uses social media to express a perspective that doesn’t match the image the powers-that-be want to present to the World.
I have friends who have/are living there and it’s fascinating talking to the ones who left and the ones who are still there.
It’s like talking to people who reside o different planets …
And while some of that may be because things have changed in the time they have gone, I can’t help but feel that for the guys still there – who talk to me with a robotic smile – the reasons are either:
1. They fear the possible implications of being found to have said anything negative to anyone.
2. It allows them to deflect having to ask themselves, ‘why are we still here?’
Or said another way, there’s commercial reasons to be deliberately positive.
Could be wrong … may not be such a binary answer … but whatever the reality, it definitely isn’t all Unicorns and Rainbows over there, which is why this ad blows my mind.
Because not does Emirates/Dubai Government fail to acknowledge any element of the situation happening in the region, they basically are doubling-down and saying the World’s media are lying to everyone.
Look at the headline on the fake newspaper at the beginning of the ad!!
It’s straight out the Trump playbook … deny, deflect, dismiss.
OK … OK … so they do say ‘some of the stories are even true’.
And then add ‘we know Dubai is not everyone’s cup of tea’.
But not only do they gloss over it faster than Usain Bolt after 19 espresso’s, they adopt a tone that suggests anyone who is not convinced by their words is a parochial idiot.
Or said another way, even more gaslighting.
And while that approach will probably convince some, for others they will be left asking ‘how do you trust a nation that’s so willing to lie to itself?’
There were so many other ways they could have done this.
Approaches that could have built bridges and provided clarity rather than just gaslight and create greater doubt.
[For example my ‘8 mile’ strategy approach could have been one way to tackle it]
But instead they went for this condescending, patronizing, ego-satisfying rubbish …
Another example of an organization who views ‘understanding audiences’ as an inconvenience when all they want to do is tell people what they want them to think.
Which is sad as Dubai is an interesting place. Full of wonderful people and with a far richer and more interesting culture and history than this work conveys.
So enjoy … it’s a great example of crisis management, wrapped in ego and denial.
