Switch - Chip Heath [98]
Here’s the translation of a Fataki spot called “Chicken and Chips”:
(Noisy sounds of a restaurant)
GIRL: Oh so many choices …
FATAKI: Please pick one …
GIRL: Ah, waitress, is this chicken or …?
WAITRESS: I would recommend this one …
FATAKI: That’s too expensive! Listen. Give her chicken and chips with some sauce. That’s good, right, my love?
GIRL: Hmmmm … OK.
(Waitress acknowledges their order and walks away.)
FATAKI (to Girl): Oh, please go and tell her it is a take-away!
GIRL: Okay …
(Background voices of waiters ordering food)
WAITRESS (whispering): I’m glad that I have a chance to talk to you alone. Don’t you feel ashamed to have a relationship with such an old man? Here, take your chips and leave quickly through this back door …
(Sound of door opening)
FATAKI: Waiter, what is going on there?
WAITRESS: Sir, the girl just went away. Would you like something?
FATAKI: What?! I came with her. She went through which door?
WAITRESS: But you have not paid for the chips, sir …
FATAKI: Ehhh???
WAITRESS: Sir, this kid is not your age …
FATAKI: Ah, take the money and leave me alone!!
WAITRESS: Hee hee hee! Got him!
ANNOUNCER: Protect your loved ones from a Fataki!
Radio spots like that one became part of a unified campaign that was piloted in a rural region called Morogoro. The campaign consisted of 10 different radio spots that were played on 3 stations, and 170 banners that were hung on stores and public buildings. The typical person heard about one radio spot a day. The campaign had two goals. The first was to create a mocking label for sugar-daddy behavior. The creative team’s objective was to someday walk into a Tanzanian nightclub and overhear one patron telling another, “That guy is such a Fataki.” By making it OK to mock the Fatakis, the team would help to counteract the natural status advantages of older and wealthier men. The second goal of the campaign was to encourage “interventions” by outsiders—friends, relatives, teachers, even waitresses—by modeling the behavior in the radio spots. The message was: “It’s your responsibility to look out for these young women. Protect your loved ones from a Fataki!”
The results from the pilot campaign were unexpectedly strong. By the end of the four-month campaign, 44 percent of people who were asked “What would you call a 50-year-old man who is always trying to seduce younger women?” spontaneously replied “Fataki.” Seventy-five percent of Morogorans reported discussing Fataki with others. And the percentage of people who said “I can do something about cross-generational sex” increased from 64 percent before the pilot to 88 percent afterward.
Having succeeded in Morogoro, the campaign was rolled out nationally in Tanzania, and the word began to spread nationwide. A health care worker setting up HIV clinics in the outer reaches of Tanzania reported that even in remote villages, Fataki had managed to bring a conversation out of the closet. Within weeks of the national launch of the campaign, the banner front-page headline of a Tanzanian tabloid accused Kanumba, a popular actor, of being a Fataki. (He’d been spotted checking into the Lambada Hotel with a young girl.) The Tanzanian public had taken ownership of a name and a character who symbolized the bad behavior they’d resented, quietly, all along.
—————————— CLINIC ——————————
How Can You Stop John’s BlackBerry Addiction?
SITUATION John has a BlackBerry addiction. His body twitches every time his BlackBerry goes off. He can’t stop himself from checking every message that comes in. It’s become a serious distraction. In meetings at work, he finds himself sneaking the device under the table to read messages covertly.