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Celebrating 20 Whacky Festivals

By on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 | No Comments

There is nothing to match the value of the celebrations and traditions of a nation. It is a time of national solidarity when the general community and families come together and forget the day to day grind and celebrates a holiday, for a particular purpose. It is a way of expressing the very heart of the nation and a time for the people to express themselves.

Besides the national festivals and celebrations, many places enjoy some whacky celebrations. Here are just 20 whacky festivals:

·    Alice Springs in the dry and desert-like heart of Australia, is host to the whacky Todd Regatta in a riverbed that has no water. The have no paddles and are bottomless. They are usually constructed of beer cans, which are first emptied by the boat builders. The teams then run the riverbed with their feet sticking out the bottom of the boats. In 1993 the race was cancelled due to the threat of a once in a blue moon rain storm.
·    In the month of August thousands of Spaniards take part in the La Tomatina festival in Bunol. Truckloads of tomatoes are dumped in the city centre. The people throw tomatoes at each other for the whole day, but only after the tomato has been squished in the hand first, before being thrown. Even sedate grandmothers have been seen to participate in the festival.
·    If you want it hot, head to Finland for the Sauna Bathing Championships. Every 30 seconds the heat is turned up. The last person left in the sauna is the winner, after having kept the naked bum firmly seated on the wooden bench and remained seated upright.
·    In Coopers’s Hill in Gloucester England contestants roll, chase, tumble, and somersault after a wheel of cheese down a ridiculously steep hill. The result is sprains, bruises and broken bones. No one ever manages to catch the cheese and whoever gets down the hill first gets to keep the giant wheel of cheese. Not everyone’s cup of tea!
·    In the UK there is a mobile phone throwing championship,
·    While in Wisconsin State, USA in September there is a champion dry cow pad (manure) throwing contest.
·    The cheese-chasing feat is less daunting than the horses and riders racing down a 69 meter slope with a 62 degree angle, known as Suicide Hill in Washington.
·    There is a Boryeong Mud Festival on the East Coast of Korea, for the fully clothed
·    While France there is a yearly International Contemporary Mime Festival.
·    In Kawasaki there is a festival where the men carry 12 foot phallus and the women two foot versions. Not quite sure what they are celebrating here.
·    You can run with the bulls in Pamplona,
·    Or choose to race bulls in Madura. Either one is a bone crunching festival.
·    In Vanuatu there is the yearly religious ceremony known as the land dive on the tropical island of Pentecost to celebrate the end of the yam harvest. The virile young men of the village dive 30 meters off a rickety looking tower on home-made vines. The aim is to let the shoulders (or heads) brush the ground. All this in order to ensure that next year’s yam harvest will be a good one. The English Queen Elizabeth was witness to the death of one of the jumpers in 1976.
·    In Greater Manchester UK they throw black puddings.
·    We all know about the legendary Scots ability to throw large items.
·    In the Rocky Mountains there is an annual ball where daughters pledge their purity to their fathers. Some do not even permit a kiss before their wedding day and many never dance with anyone other than their father or brothers. Tough luck on the single males of the area.
·    Japan hosts the Naked Festival. All the male contestants are dressed in oversize diapers and parade through the winter streets. The onlookers throw cold water over the contestants who drink copious amounts of sake in an effort to stop from freezing.

Many people take their national holidays very seriously and celebrate them wherever they emigrate. Some of these celebrations have become so popular in the host country, they have been adopted outside the immigrant community. This can make it difficult to assess the origin of a celebration.

·    Easter and Christmas which originated in the Middle East have become worldwide celebrations handed down through the churches and adopted by commerce.
·    The Munich Beer Festival is also one such celebration. Numerous countries now lay claim to their own beer festival
·    Halloween was Irish in its origin. Now many countries around the world celebrate Halloween, particularly the United States of America
Other celebrations remain more localized to a particular community inside the host country.

·    Thanksgiving is an American harvest festival. Americans all over the world, stop to celebrate this festival.
·    While Chinese New Year is limited to the Chinese population in a country, there are many countries around the globe where it is celebrated.
·    Melbourne Cup Race Day is celebrated by Australians, no matter what country they live in.

While some say festivals express something about the people who celebrate them, I wonder! It is important however, as a universal community we respect without censure, how and what others choose to celebrate. Each festival meets a particular need in the individuals of that nation and becomes an integral part of a way of life. Maybe you can come up with some whacky celebration of your own.

Here is an even more whacky Blue Moon Opportunity. You could win a resort and live on a tropical island, sponsored by the author Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husband as CEO’s ofYouMe Support Foundation. Do yourself a favour and spend a few minutes taking a look atWin a Resort.

Does Celebrity Advertising Worth Celebrating?

By on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 | No Comments

The field of the consumer behavior is the study of the individuals, groups/organization and the processes. Although, numerous factors affect the buying decision process but the use of right Celebrity has the great influence on the consumers.

Marketers pay millions to celebrities hoping that they will bring magic to their brands they endorse and make them more appealing and successful. The effectiveness of using a celebrity to endorse a firm’s product can generally be improved by matching the image of the celebrity with the personality of the product and the actual or desired concept of the target market. There is a high correlation between the appearance, knowledge, liking, credibility, and advertising believability and purchase intentions.

The theory behind the use of celebrity is that featuring stars in advertising has special cultural significance, born from the unique way they have constructed an image through various forms of media. In associating the celebrities with the product, these special meanings are passed on the products or brands. In a competitive market, a famous face can give a brand an added appeal and helps it to stand out. Celebrities have particular configurations of meanings that cannot found elsewhere.

Sports celebrities are often popular, picks to endorsers of everything from apparel to vehicles. For example Nike used basketball star Michael Jordan as spoke person since 1985 and the Air Jordan line was still selling. In December of 2000, Venus Williams signed the most lucrative endorsement deal ever for a female athlete when she agreed to a three-year deal with the Reebok international reportedly worth $40 million.

Another popular industry from which to draw celebrity endorsers is the music industry. One of the famous singer Britney Spears was singing her way through Pepsi commercials in 2005. Adnan Sami performed the same process in Asian market for the Pepsi Ad. Along the same lines, companies often use actors, actresses and supermodels to endorse their products.

However, in addition to the exorbitant costs, there are risks and danger associated with the use of celebrities in advertising. The best laid plan can still backfire. Pepsi signed up Madonna for several million dollars in order to feature her in Pepsi campaign. Then controversy over the religious imagery in Madonna’s “Prayer” video led to the threat of a consumer boycott and Pepsi lost $10 million. Cybill shepherd’s Ad for the beef industry flopped when she publicly admitted she rarely ate red meat. These examples are only a few of the problems with celebrity endorsement. Unfortunately, there are hidden dangers when using celebrities. A Celebrity’s consumer appeal may fade if the celebrity disappears from the media spot light before the end of his or her contract.

If so many dangers abound, why use celebrities? Many advertisers feel that celebrities make an advertisement more effective. The use of celebrity has demonstrated to lead to higher recall of an advertisement. For example in early 2001, Revlon ceased using celebrity models and hired relative unknowns for their Ad campaigns, thinking women wanted models to whom they could relate more easily. In November 2001, they reversed this decision and started hiring celebrities such as Julianne Moore and Halle Berry, after losing 10.6 percent of the cosmetics market share over the previous year.

The above examples reflect the importance of the celebrities in the product association and their effects. Marketers must be comprehended before the selection of the celebrities. For example, a make-up company may target both young and old women, and the aspirational celebrity chosen for younger women may be non-aspirational for the older women.

Consumers who have used brand associations to construct their self-identities may be more brands loyal and less likely to switch to competitors’ brands in response to price cuts, special displays, bundling tactics and coupons.

To assess the effectiveness of a celebrity endorsement, all three elements must be taken into consideration celebrity image, brand image and consumer aspirations.

The celebrities can be used to reduce the conflict between the nations or a country. Adnan Sami live in India and Annie in Pakistan; both were appeared together in the Pepsi commercial. Pepsi introduced this Ad in both of the markets of Pakistan and India. Such type of Ads shows the good relation between the countries or nations.

Right use of Celebrity plays a vital role for the success of the brand along its advertising over the target market. Selection of Celebrity requires a detailed study to predict its affects on the target market. Companies must have to conduct the complete research process before the selection of the Celebrity for their desired association with the product, especially in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) celebrities’ selection which becomes more critical.

[Article by Abdullah Nazir and Zafar-uz-Zaman]

MBA COMSATS Lahore, Pakistan