I was listening to the radio this morning when I heard the Airtel advert regarding their phone swap service. Ordinarily, I would not pay attention to adverts, but it kept playing and I had to give it my attention. Now, I wish I didn’t.

Before I proceed, let me try to paraphrase the advert so you can recall (if you have heard it) and understand my views:

Phone rings. Lady Picks up the phone

A male telemarketer starts to advertise the airtel phone swap

Another phone rings. The lady tells the other caller (obviously her boyfriend) that she will call him back and then prompts the telemarketer to continue…

Telemarketer tells her about the internet data packages etc. she will enjoy from the phone swap

The second phone rings again. The lady snaps at her boyfriend (tells him she will call him back) and hangs up.

Telemarketer continues to give information and in response the lady asks, if they can swap boyfriends too.

Your first likely reaction to the advert is to chuckle, ‘hahaha’ and conclude that the ad is funny. I believe that was the intent of the ad producers as well. I must confess, I chuckled too! But, with some more thought, you will agree with me that the advert has the potential of leaving a bad taste in the mouth and passing the wrong ideas to the young generation.

Let me explain why.

Anyone who is or has been in a relationship knows that his/her partner will not call incessantly, unless there is something that needs your urgent attention. In such a situation, the reasonable thing to do is to disconnect your discussion with the telemarketer and speak with your partner. I mean, who should ordinarily take priority? Your boyfriend/husband who believes so much in you, his life is interwoven with yours? Or a telemarketer who wants to sell his product and collect money from you?

The advert also paints the idea that it is perfectly acceptable to snap at your loved one if they inconvenience you with calls/messages. Really? Is that the proper thing to do? I do not think so. Being human, you may at times find yourself snapping in such situations, but it doesn’t make it right. One pillar of positive relationships is mutual respect. You should not snap at someone who you respect, it’s just wrong!

Here’s the final blow – the lady in the advert was willing to swap her boyfriend just because he called her incessantly and the telemarketer did not caution or disabuse her mind from doing this. This gives the impression that it is permissible to dump your partner for little inconveniences. By doing this, the advert inadvertently encourages listeners to consider other options to their partners for very flimsy reasons, such as repeated phone calls.

IMHO, this is not sufficient reason to end your relationship.  So your boyfriend calls you so often and the next option is to ‘swap’ him for another? Relationships are more important  than that! Being in a relationship connotes that you are with someone who you are willing to share your life and future with. It requires you to invest your time, money, emotions, soul and (in marriage) your body. Does it sound right to end such an enterprise for mere inconveniences, such as incessant phone calls?

I assume that Airtel has no intention to pass across a wrong message, but in this case, they have done so. This was also done a while ago when they released an ad for their data services by trying to define what ‘fast’ means. The campaign was stopped because of the backlash from the general public.

I strongly urge them to take the same decision on this ad, this is Africa, we are more concerned about building relationships…

Source - http://www.marriagearian.com/2015/09/imho-airtel-adverts-and-negative.html?m=1

uhmm OP i have not come across this advert, but I would like to ask, was boyfriend specifically mentioned in the advert? It could be that the second caller was just a toaster.
#justsaying

Yes, boyfriend was mentioned in the advert... she asked if they could swap boyfriends...

marriagearian:

that advert just too incoherent. some of these companies find it very very difficult passing across the message in a particular commercial..though am not a media/advertorial person but i take my time to understand the messages behind commercials (tv or radio)

what of the etisalat advert. That one encourages infidelity and philandering

I must commend the Op for this elaborate treatise. Hope this message is taken seriously.