By
Simon Musasizi
WEEKLY OBSERVER
The Sunday Do Me beach concert almost kissed a dead end
after the main sponsor pulled out at the last hour.
Crown Bottling Limited (CBL) through its Mirinda Pineapple
brand had financed the Nigerian R&B duo, P-Square to
perform at a family concert at Resort Beach, Entebbe.
And the green posters were all over town – with the
key message “Do Me.” It looked great as long
as you didn’t translate it to your local language.
But not even the Head of Marketing Department, CBL Aggie
Konde had taken time to internalise the message on the posters
and banners.
“We were not actually sponsors of this event. We
just got prominence because Kazoora was the organiser,”
Konde told The Weekly Observer. John Kazoora is the Brand
Manager of Mirinda Pineapple.
“When I looked at the posters, I thought it was okay,
but when the issue was raised by the minister [of Ethics
and Integrity], I realised it was a mistake,” she
added.
A day to the event, Mirinda pulled out of the show and ordered
for all posters to be pulled down and stopped all radio
and television adverts.
The show still went on with many parents thronging the
beach with their children.
But you could notice something was wrong – poor stage,
sound system and lighting.
Only Sanyu FM kept its sponsorship. Pilsener Lager also
pulled out to avoid the kind of embarrassing scenes that
happened at the sister brand Smirnoff-sponsored Club Silk
street jam, which forced government to warn event organisers.
“We are concerned about the number of public musical
concerts whose organisers and sponsors abdicate the roles
of community moral responsibility and harm the spirit of
Uganda’s moral integrity by engaging in indecent practices,”
the Minister of Ethics and Integrity, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo
said at a press conference on Friday.
But did he know the song has received massive air play on
local radio and TV stations?
The minister was only awakened by the Jamaican singer,
Elephant Man who smoked marijuana and committed acts of
‘gross indecency’ with women on stage at the
Club Silk Street Jam.
Government was concerned that the name given to the concert,
Do me, which is the title of P-Square’s hit single,
Do Me, was vulgar and therefore likely to corrupt the morals
of young people, since the show was being promoted as ‘family’
outing.
And indeed like a presenter on Radio Simba said after playing
the track, it’s hard to translate the message in the
song into our local languages.
“If you do me, I do you… Step on the dance
floor…Give it to me. What a man can do, a woman can
do,” goes part of the song’s lyrics.
Even when P-Square laboured to explain to their fans on
radio stations what the lyrics meant, it was too little
too late.
“Do Me is a Nigerian popular thinking that what you
do to me is what you receive in return,” the twins
said on Radio One.
But certainly Buturo was not convinced.
“Some parents have called and complained that P-Square’s
music and videos such as ‘Do me’ are gross and
promote sexual irresponsibility,” the minister noted.
“We are concerned that they have planned and advertised
for a concert with children and minors where alcohol is
going to be served. Mixing sexually provocative performances,
alcohol and children into the dark hours of the night is
socially irresponsible and constitutes criminal negligence
on behalf of the organisers,” he added.
But Konde said she had not taken time to analyse the message
in the song.
“We pulled out because we couldn’t control the
behaviour of artistes and yet children were coming,”
she said.
According to Buturo, government is planning to punish companies
involved in sponsoring ‘bad’ shows.
“Corporate sponsors who put their funds in procuring
these performances are also liable for the unfortunate and
illegal acts of the performances. Corporations need not
only exercise corporate social responsibility but they must
also avoid procuring groups, which contravene the law of
Uganda. This is corporate social irresponsibility, which
harms many citizens,” Buturo warned.
Buturo recently banned another song titled Embooko by one
upcoming musician named Teacher. He ordered all radio and
TV stations to stop playing the song whose lyrics are understood
to be loaded with vulgarity.
Nsaba Buturo’s critics argue that the minister may
not sustain his campaign because the entertainment industry
generally thrives on sexual innuendo. Besides, most of the
targeted audience don’t seem to mind the songs.
smusasizi@ugandaobserver.com
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