In Venezuela, or at least in Valencia, you hardly ever see any type of social awareness campaigns, but there is one that caught my eye. It is called SENOS AYUDA (senos meaning breasts or do us and ayuda means help.) I applauded the iniciative and participated in donating through text messaging. But Ford´s campaign aid to Breast Cancer did let me down.
Ford presented a campaign and decided to use the naked female form and use it as a landscape with an SUV. (nipples and all) Now, John Neff in autoblog.com celebrated the Ford campaign; however I have to disagree with John. There is one thing right with the campaign, and that is that it supports breast cancer awareness but there are so many things wrong with it that I am almost insulted.I dare to say that a man designed the ads. As a woman they have no appeal to me. In fact one of my male co-workers was "you know laughing and telling the other guys about the boobies on the back of the sunday news" that made me noticed it.
In my humble opinion and without wanting to sound like a prude, the images are too sexual for the message. The model´s hand positions are too distracting for the message, and in reality more appealing to men. I´ve disscussed the usage of SUV with others, but I do believe that more than a vehicle that is a status definer in Venezuela therefore women are attracted to it. But the true message get lost along the laughing and the shock. This is a campaign that in my opinion has gone wrong and only stimulates men rather than its target, women. The ads fail to make me want to go through the bothersome mamogram, but it has created what it meant to create: awareness. Though it does not call to action. (except maybe get your a car and run it through your wive´s or gf´s body?)
Now, I just wish that there were more women in the higher decision making positions in advertising here that targeted and reached women for the right reasons.
It was monday night and I was tired, but decided to go to the movies to something other than home-work-home. We watched Tropic Thunder and it was a good laugh but thats beside the point. As we tried to exit Sambil Mall where the movie theater is at, there was a huge storm and we started walking around. It was almost 10pm and suddenly I stared seeing water come into the mall, now we were in the first level and there is one more before the roof but it was still dripping a lot of water. Not wanting to wait until it stopped rainning, we decided to just walk in the rain to the parking lot, take our car and leave.
We left the mall only to find the very street that goes in behind of it a small river flowing with brown water. We continued on travelling south towards Via Venetto a trendy mall thinking it was impossible that such a street would be flooded but the water level just kept on rising. There were overflowing streets and non-existing sidewalks. The mini drove on and I was afraid it would just get water in the distributor, stall and die. My husband was afraid water would come in through the muffler, and well stop our small adventure. We navigated through and it was probably the first time I see small and large cars alike driving with caution. Besides the water coming into the cars, there was another concern; potholes on the streets, and obviously you cannot spot them when they are covered with water and do some serious damage to the car´s structure.
And so my husband, the mini and I navigated until we found another major street, but since it was on an incline the water was not accumulating so much. By going through side streets, we managed to make it home, wet but in one piece.
By tuesday morning I was relieved that we left early and missed the real flood. It was a disaster, the mall is closed down and there were approximately 160 cars that are total loses due to water damage. The movie goers in the late show were interrupted and asked to get their cars out of the parking lot.
This is what the parking lot looked like in the morning:
It was a tragedy, but one that could have been prevented. The rain affected around 4,800 people in Carabobo. Many people think the problems are caused by improper sewage systems in the many new neighbourhoods being built. There is also lack of respect for nature and the new buildings have taken up a lot of the mountain areas which are not apt for construction.
Let´s hope either insurance or the Sambil management take charge and replace all the damaged vehicles and although there were casualties in other parts of the state at least there was none hurt at the Sambil flooding.
A few saturdays ago my husband woke me up and said I should prepare for a surprise. I was asked to dress in comfortable shoes, sun protection and to bring along some water.
Though I was curious, I was afraid it would be another auto related outing so I kept quiet and let him drive. We went towards Puerto Cabello and started looking for a small town, this threw me off since it looked like we were off to the beach. After a few tries I figured out where we were going as my husband handed me a small travel guide he had put together abot the Fortin Solano.
We climbed 500 meters up the mountain and encountered a cop on his bike. It must have been around 10-10:30 am, and we continued a few meters up to the parking lot. We parked when I noticed a man dressed in a blue t-shirt and pants waving something at the cop on the motorcycle slowly climbing up. To my surprise the man was waving a gun, I inmediately told Oscar and he started to back away from the parking spot. A bit dissappointed he called the officer on his bike and had this little convo:
- Sir, is it my imagination, or did that man have a gun? - Oh yeah, he does. No worries he is the officer that takes care of the place.
Oscar stopped the car, turned to me and asked if we should go back. But I just spoke to the officer and asked why was he waving the gun like that. To which he replied:
- Oh yeah, no worries, he´s just drunk.
Oh yeah, I was surprised. We got out of there as fast as we could.
I´ve been in Venezuela for over six months now and I have had a rough time with it, but I am proud to say that I have learnt quite a few tricks to everyday life now. One key word to get by in Venezuela is to be a pana, word that means friend, buddy and that many claim comes from the english word partner. (pronounced in a southern accent)
When you live in a country where the government does not provide proper health care, education is declining (I recently found out that math classes are not considered a subject buy a workshop) and the road conditions are an insult to any vehicle, the population becomes curt, impatient and even rude. Anyone would be surprised, after the description I made, to find the shinning heart of Venezuelans and their understanding of being a pana. I believe this pana ideal comes with the little words, people here use everyday. It is common to be called beautiful, love, doll or panita (small female pana) at a store, at the office, wherever. And when you do use the words, people seem to treat you nicer, and many times you may even get things done. (wow)
So I arm myself with patience before I head out to my everyday and remember to smile and call everyone with loving words, and to do things de pana and to be a pana.
Driving at 90-100 Km/h on a highway was suddenly contrasted by the rythm of an iguana crossing the road. We could not stop laughing and then traffic stopped behind us and all.
I have not been able to find much information about iguanas crossing roads here in Venezuela, but I am told this is not an strange occurance.
Signs like this one are found in Central America, it may be wise for the authorities here to do something similar.
While the US celebrates Thanksgiving, Venezuelans prepare for Christmas. Stores are full of decorations with escalating prices on everything to make sure all christians really do find out what giving is all about. I went shopping for ingredients to make oatmeal cookies to give away at christmas. Since these cookies do not need milk and only a couple of eggs I figured it was an ideal solution. Little did I know that after getting raisins, nutmeg and cinnamon, I wouldn´t be able to find flour, eggs, sugar nor oatmeal. There goes that bright idea.
I should be shopping for christmas food, instead I am, like most people I know here stocking up on whatever I find for the basics. My office mates and I have created a food network, unlike the one on TV this one consists of calling your mate when you find any of the missing items mentioned above.
Yesterday I went to the drugstore to get some yoghurt drink, because you can find ice cream, yoghurt, cheese and cream, but no milk, and I wonder, don´t they need milk to make these things? At the drugstore I found soy milk a nice alternative to milk, the regular price for milk is about Bs. 1800 a litre of soy milk was listed at Bs. 7000, a high price but I decided to pay it. When I got to the register I was charged Bs. 10 000. Not only are we being raped by the milk producers, now anyone who can sell alternatives to milk.
By the way, you cannot find any powder milk or tetra pak milk, and when you do, you have to pull out your kung-fu skills to get one item. Then you get stamped at the register (like an amusement park) so that you don´t go back and get more.
Walking around in Caracas last week, we decided to look for a quick bite to eat. There were hardly any visible street names, but every so often we found signage with golden arches, happily announcing the distance you stood away from the shop. (McDonald´s 150 mts, McDonald´s 50 mts) We spoted about four different ones in a 1 kilometer radius. Call it subliminal advertising, but the next day we decided to go find some pancakes, you know, the big breakfast from McDonald´s or a nice junky-juicy-egg-mcmuffin.
But instead found something that brought a smile to my face. An AREPA for breakfast with bacon, american cheese and one of those out of the box eggs. Yes, the areapa for breakfast, and I thought how Venezuelan! Then I looked for the mcmuffin sandwich, but there wasn´t one. Instead there is something called a Criollo, which you can have with bacon, cheese, eggs and sausage, now, you may think I am a walking commercial here, but what brought my attention to this is how there is a fusion between the north and the south to cater to the venezuelan consumer. And how much fun it would be to have an arepa at McDonald´s for breakfast in Toronto!
Who do you identify yourself with? In advertising, for many years the ideal colour of beauty was blonde and blue eyed. As time went by, beauty had brown hair and lately darker tones of hair and skin. Now, we have the human race on ads all around.
Veer has a gorgeous collection of images called SOMOS FAMILIA which features latin people doing all kinds of activities. Latinamericans come in all colors, we are an interesting hybrid of all nations that were here, and the ones that migrated here form other continents. There are a lot of the image bank images that show tanned characters, who are ready to cater to the latin consumers in north america. It is very usual to have people of all ethnicities in advertising in Canada and the US, to identify and target different markets.
What I´ve written is to be celebrated by all. Now, I have nothing against beauty of any color, shape or form, but here in Venezuela where I am doing some design work, my clients and employer insist on using "nice, clean blond looking people" to advertise all kinds of products.
This concept bothers me. Why not include all the skin colors?Venezuela has all kinds of races unified all throughout the county?
I am not sure nor happy with the blonde models,(nothing personal) but what I am sure of is, I will sneak in a bit of anti-racism into everyone of my ads as long as I can.
Trying to write a blog of my Venezuelan experiences without touching upon politics, but is quite hard. According to the Soda Stereo (one of the most important bands in Spanish Rock) website, their Venezuelan presentation of the"Me Veras Volver 2007" will take place in Caracas on December 2nd. The same day there will be Referendum.
A concert to distract the Venezuelan youth away from voting?
It would be great if Soda Stereo made a pause and thought of the significance of their appearence that day.
New entry: Soda Stereo has moved the date to November 29th. YEY!
Picture this. You are 18 years old, you´ve just moved to a large city, you meet a man and have a friendly exhange of words. You take off. He follows you, hits you, kidnaps you and after months of being under his possesion, a group of police officers find you.
Your face is destroyed. You cannot hear properly out of one ear, your eye is so messed up you cannot see properly. Your breasts have be nearly bitten off. You are in a pool of blood, tied up to a chair. Your womb is also destroyed, along with one of your ovaries.
After reconstructive surgery, and mental therapy you come out of your saga, just to find out that you have been deemed a prostitute who gave herself away to your captor and came home one day all beaten up and refused to go to the authorities.
Sad.
This is what happened to Linda Loaiza in 2001.
Who has become a womens rights defendant, here in Venezuela.
If you read spanish you can click on the link to view the full article here.
The Venezuelan government has decided to limit the people´s imagination, when naming their kids. They claim it is to keep an equilibrium and development of the child.
Some of the names are:
Yusnavy (US Navy)
Supermán (no explanation required)
Maikel Jackson (Michael Jackson)
Makgiber
Guarisda (What is that)
Lexotanil (un medicamento)
Yusleidi (US Lady)
Yesaidú (Yes I do)
Noysí (Noisy?)
Air Jordan
Maiparner (My Partner)
John Wayne
Kennedy
Hitler
These were some of the names that figured in the census in 2006, the Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE), wants to protect children from being ridiculed for having such extravant names that are difficult to pronunce in spanish. (no kidding)
The goverment will allow parents to name their kids with special names if the parents heritage justifies the use of the name (US Navy?) that is if the parents are foreigners or natives.
Some parents also like to combine their names to use them on their newborns. (ie. Raftina (Rafael y Robertina), Yolimar (Yolanda y Mario)
So I thought isn´t my right as a parent to name my kid whatever I want? Or is the goverment doing right by challenging the lack of culture some might have by naming their kids such¨extravangant names?
I think it goes back to same old answer, education. The more you educate and bring culture to the masses the less likely you are to have to restrict their uneducated taste. As funny as you may find all of this, it all comes down to one thing, freedom of choice.
Exito means Success. Though recently I was not very successful at finding sugar (see image above) milk, nor eggs at Exito a large local grocery store.
There was plenty of Equal and Splenda and other sugar substitutes on the shelves.
This may be the new health benefit of Venezuelans, no extra calories due to sugar consumption. No high cholesterol due to egg abuse and even kids can now grow weak and lean without any milk.
