Whatever You Do, Don’t Mention The War!
After a series of mutual genocide charges we’re going over to some news of a completely opposite nature.
Fashion TV channel decided to start a special branch for the South East European market – that would say former Yugoslav countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro) plus probably some other, whatever falls under SEE these days.
The event made me think about some things that haven’t crossed my mind earlier, but probably should have.
It is one of many similar projects that does not target one former Yugoslav country in particular, but the whole region – after all, nearly 25 million people speaking the same language is not an insignificant market. Big Brother, Operation Triumph, MTV Adria, Idol – to name the biggest players, are using this all-at-once tactic to penetrate otherwise not-so-interesting, small and financially weak markets.
Similar to MTV, Veliki Brat and Operacija Trijumf, Fashion channel will also play the card of glamor, luxury, big money, celebrities to attract the wide audience, even though the majority of people in the region live not so glamorous lives.
And similar to the predecessors, one key thing caught my eye – never, under any circumstances will the fact that former Yugoslav states have been in a war emerge in any of these shows.
Maybe it’s the idea of the producers that this approach is what will contribute most to some mutual understanding, reconciliation and lowering the tensions. Maybe their logic says: well, if the Serbian and Croatian teenagers jerk off to the same Severina videos, laugh at the same people being stupid on Big Brother, that’s gotta be a step forward in diplomatic relations of the two countries, right? After all, that globalization!
Personally I believe the logic is all about the easiest way of geting as much money as possible – playing it safe is the key to success. All reality show contestants are bound by contracts not to mention politics. Not good for the ratings!
Now the Fashion TV channel is coming and lets face it, FTV is mostly about soft porn and legalized sex trafficking – what are the chances of politics ever being mentioned there, right? Zeljko Mitrovic, the guy who made FTV in b/h/s possible and one of the wealthiest Serbs, knows very well that politics and show biz don’t mix. He made most of his fortune thanks to his friendship with Milosevic family, by running the popular Pink TV during the nineties. In a time of war when the need for proper information was of utmost importance, the station did not broadcast news of any sorts. It was, on the other hand full of glamor, luxury and good life images coming mostly in form of turbofolk and other panem et circenses features:
“Whatever you do – do not mention the war!” as Basil Fawlty would say. Some media mogul might add – insert some sex, celebs, fashion, gossip and you have yourself a winner.
UPDATED:
PopKitchen reminded me of this video ad for Mitrovic’s ex party, JUL, (Yugoslavian left), led by Milosevic’s wife, Mirjana Markovic. The singing lady in the video is calling upon voters to “vote for justice, courage and honesty”. Talk about mixing show biz and politics – we were way ahead of Obamania! (the party did get only about 2 % of the popular vote but ended up in the government because they were in coalition with Milosevic’s party, SPS) Just like in every good household, where women were in charge of money, so was JUL in charge of country’s finances during the nineties.
Jul je kul (“JUL is cool”) (JUL je cool) video
254 readers already did.
4 Comments, Comment or Ping
Relja Dereta
It’s sad to say that, yes, possibly one of the biggest contributors to a more peaceful Balkans are shows made by companies motivated by the fact that the Balkans on the whole are a good market, as opposed to the countries individually.
I think that there is a thing which could help in the reconciliation process and which isn’t worthless TV shows – tourism. If there was some sort of a network of communication between the agencies in the FRY countries, with good offers for neighborhood tourism, and a good promotional campaign or some sort of plan on a regional level, then after enough people have had the opportunity to travel a bit in their neighborhood and realize that, yes, the neighbors are not heartless monsters, and maybe things would improve much faster.
Wait, now that I think about it, I can imagine problems at every turn. If such a thing is to succeed, it would have to be truly ingeniously designed, and what are the chances of that happening? Are we really stuck with these TV shows as the best ambassadors?
Nov 29th, 2008
popkitchen
These things always take me back to Dejan Milicevic aesthetic and ideological brainwashing of “Jul je cool” advertisements. I would not go as far as to say that nothing has changed, but what the hell, all of these people (Mitrovic&Ceca) are still looming large. Did anything change?
Nov 29th, 2008
Viktor
Tolstoy, tourism is good, but I’m afraid with all the latest ingenious efforts from Croatian and Serbian govt for example, that that’s going to slow down for a while…
Popkitchen, thanks for reminding me to look up for “Jul je kul” video – I’ve updated the post, let’s all remember now how the lyrics go.
As for the changes – they are only being made at the surface it seems. .
Nov 29th, 2008
BelgradeDailyPhoto
What I want to know is when they are going to rename Midnight Hot to Midnight Ho’s. :
) :)Dec 26th, 2008
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