I am probably one of the very few people who think the MTN ad many refer to as a masterstroke (including me) was unethical in some ways. Businessday carried a story today on how the coup was carried out. It revealed quite a lot about how poorly Etisalat Market Communication team is/was. For those are yet to see the video…its right below. If you had then just dive straight to the story.

Here is an abridged version of the story

It was agreed that the right campaign idea must be relevant, original and impactful; must be humorous and culturally relevant; and given the newness of the concept of porting numbers, must be able to educate the audience on the meaning and basics of number portability.

When gold was eventually struck, continued the source, neither the agency nor the client harboured any doubts. Can there be a better way to illustrate porting than to get someone who is literally the face of another network to declare that he/she has ported to MTN? And what personality better symbolised this than Saka? Therefore, get Saka to declare that he has ported to MTN, and make him say it in a manner that would suggest he is delighted doing so. It was simple, yet ingenious, and had all the elements DDB expects from a successful advertising campaign – simplicity, surprise and a smile. Believing Saka to be way beyond reach, given the extent of his involvement in telecom campaign, the initial idea was to get a Saka look-alike to star in the campaign. This strategy was planned as a payback and revenge tactic.

Get the full and interesting story following the link below