Tuesday, 27 February 2007
Same same Campaign
Campaign is dead, long live Campaign..... The editorial team have now moved across from ITP to Motivate, where they will recommence their work on the weekly magazine once the licence has been processed. An uncharacteristic display of generousness from ITP by not banning them? Or maybe they were all on Dubai Media City visas ..... One thing is clear: Motivate staff are making the Auld Enemy feel very welcome: a Campaign flag stood proud on the vacated desks to welcome the new arrivals. But will Campaign retain its bite at Motivate?
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"bite"? Are you insane? A dead fish would have more bite.
I have to agree with anonymous. I understand one of the reasons Haymarket was unhappy with ITP was because the magazine's local coverage was so tame. You only have to read it's toadying coverage of anything to do with Emirates Toady to see the problem.
It's not like Campaign wanted to tame it. The problem is and always will be, advertising. If advertisers start threatening to pull their ads from all titles by the publisher, the magazine's tone naturally will become tamed. It's a thin line you walk.
It's obvious that anonymous seems to have understood anonymous's point while it seems anonymous doesn't really understand what anonymous was getting at. But does anonymous appreciate just how difficult it must have been for anonymous to admit to the anodyne nature of the anonymous work that takes place at Campaign?
Of course, bite is a relative term. Compared to Emirates Today, Campaign was vicious. Compared to one of its sister titles, not so much.
It's a fair point that they were constrained by advertisers. What bothered me, and I think a lot of other people, was that Campaign would regularly lay into other publications for sucking up to advertisers while doing exactly the same themselves. They were also very selective in which publications they criticised, based fairly transparently on who Serafin et al didn't want/dare upset. It's very difficult to do that and remain credible.
Does this mean we get to see the return of the usual smug topbods in the industry complaining every week about the poor quality of something here, with absolutely no sense of irony whatsoever.
And the riveting '24 hours with' in which it seems every single ad boss works an 18 hour day.
The "24 hours with" had almost become a parody... amazing how many people have time to get up at 6am, go to the gym while answering calls on their Bluetooth earpiece, do an AMAZING day's work, where they win pitches, have brainstorming sessions, get home, spend time with the children, then an evening chatting to their other half, before reading Tolstoy and going to sleep.
Whither Campaign?
Or should that be Campaign Withered?
Campaign, throughout its brief existence, was the best title in Middle East media. Fact. It was the only mag that provided a weekly news round-up of the big pitches, account wins and losses - and most of the industry (i.e not self-important, yet talentless hacks working on other magazines) loved it - myself included. It was well-written and staffed by experienced journalists. Yes, there was always going to be a fine line between what could run and what was spiked, but the fact is they trod the line as well as could be done in the twitchy, ad-driven, Dubai media environment. Rumour is the mag is coming back again. Whether or not it will be as good as its former incarnation remains to be seen.
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