Advertising
is big business and it shows because all over the city, billboards have
sprung up en-mass and in the newspapers on television and radio,
adverts are posted daily though on radio and television, the adverts run
every five minutes or so.
The
thing about adverts is what do we make of them? Are the people who are
advertising looking at us as fools, as people who don’t know what we
want and hence the need for them to tell us that they exist, sell so and
so product and are forced to advertise?
Would we necessarily go out and buy a product simply because it has been advertised on Bukedde television or on Urban television? The people who advertise so think so and that is why they plunge a good proportion of their budgets into advertising.
Let’s
pause there a while. The Entebbe airport of old and by old, I mean the
Idi Amin, Military Commission and Obote II era, the airport was a far
cry from what it is today.
To
be honest, the airport was a ‘morgue’ but though a morgue, it did have
its advantages. Then, if somebody was travelling, it was possible to
walk to the check in counter with them. And at immigration if you
slipped Immigration Officer kitu kidogo (something small) he would let you into the departure lounge and sit with your friend until their flight was boarding.
It
was also possible to park your car right outside departures unlike
today, where you park in the car park and have struggle with your
luggage up the narrow stairways to the departure lounge.
And
then I might also add, is that didn’t have to pay a parking fee. And
how many of you knew that we used to be allowed on to the airport roof
because there is a viewing gallery up there? I bet that one caught you
out!
Okay
so the airport was bland and morgue like. All the shops on the
departure level were not there and once you had past immigration, again
there was not a single duty free shop in sight save for one restaurant –
if it could be called a restaurant because, it sold – well nothing. You
were lucky to find the odd Pepsi or a samosa that had been rejected by
previous travellers.
And
in its bland state one thing that was noticeable is that it was totally
devoid of any commercial branding. There was not a single billboard in
sight.
Today,
all has changed because the airport has undergone a transformation in
that somebody woke up and discovered that it has the potential to be a
huge cash cow. Advertisers are fighting over the airport for space and
the principal players are MTN, Orange, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA)
and Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) amongst others. And CAA, which, I
presume owns and manages the airport, is only too happy to let the
players tussle it out and in the process fill their coffers.
Looking
at the airport from the apron, at the top of the building where it says
‘Entebbe International Airport’, those words are hardly visible because
they have been obliterated by UWA and Orange signage. That is where the
battle starts.
At
immigration, MTN have snapped up the immigration booths while Stanbic
Bank, United Bank of Africa and Cti battle it out on the peripherals for
any space that CAA will give them.
But
CAA, are not content. They want more, they want more money in their
bank account and as long as there is space to sell, they are seemingly
not contented with just selling off the immigration booths or the
airports windows and walls. They have gone a step further and sold off
the floor to the late comers like Protea Hotel and URA.
The
Entebbe of old, though it looked bland, it also looked a far lot neater
then than it does today because it now looks like a clowns outfit. And
seeing it is all about money, there is no doubt that MTN and UWA who
already have signage on either side of ‘Entebbe International Airport’
sign are probably in a protracted discussion to find out if they can
prefix their names to the sign so it reads ‘MTN Entebbe International
Airport’ or ‘UWA Entebbe International Airport’.
My
fingers are crossed for perhaps Robert Kabushenga, Vision Group CEO
might also decide to buy space and have a huge banner that reads: "The
Coward International Airport, Entebbe.” If that happens, then CAA’s
lunacy might also descend into selling advertising space on the runway
too!
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