Beer And Models: Promoting Mallorca

If you look at a map of Germany, you will discover that there are sixteen "Länder" in the country, the sixteen states of Germany. Missing from it is the seventeenth. It is a gag in Germany that Mallorca is the seventeenth state, so close has been the association for so long.

The German obsession with the island far outstrips any British fascination. It does of course have its downside, especially if the red-top "Bild" has anything to do with it. But it is otherwise a generally positive obsession, even if it can result in the German television-viewing public having inflicted upon it some atrocities in the name of popular entertainment. Geman broadcasters think nothing of flying in some appalling Schlagermusik acts, locating them in a "kneipe" in Paguera, Arenal or another mini-state of Germany in Mallorca, and filming them. The result? Truly awful.

My own personal favourite of this genre was an outdoor location. Some dame in a ball gown was on rocks with the water lapping over her feet, belting out a tune, while a bloke in full tux gear was on a different rock playing a trumpet. It was one of those jaw-dropping moments when one can only wonder what on Earth possesses anyone to dream up such a scenario. For the most part, though (or it would seem), the German telly watcher laps up ladies having water lapping over their stilettos. I personally couldn't identify where the rocks in question were, but the über and immer curious Germans would doubtless have undertaken such research, gone online and booked there and then.

Which is why it is all so positive. While the British are served a diet of "Geordie Shore" and Stacey Dooley, the Germans have unthreatening musical and other acts promoting the island. Which brings us to a more modern performance: one by German group Stereoact. This thirtysomethings DJ-producer duo have a smash hit, "Die Immer Lacht" (she always laughs). Even more of a smash is the number of YouTube views - currently some 47 million.

Its success may owe something to sixteen-year-old blonde model-singer, Greta Hirsch, who is never off camera during the video. But if eyes can be taken off Greta for one moment, then it is evident that there are certain scenes of Mallorca. Some of it is a bit "urban" in that, for example, a wall with graffiti features. Otherwise, the knowledge-seeking Germans have been figuring out where the different scenes are, such as Ses Covetes and Palma.

While parts of the British media were, thanks to "The Night Manager", alerted to the fact that there are indeed parts of Mallorca which aren't Magalluf and consequently appeared to try and outdo one another in professing their knowledge of the likes of Formentor, the BBC series was something of an unusual occurrence. For the Germans, on the other hand, there is more or less daily free promotion of Mallorca - and normally in a positive way - from one source or another. And the Stereoact song and video have just reinforced this, even if of the 47 million one suspects that the majority have been more interested in Greta than in a beach chiringuito.

Although the British and other tourism markets may be deprived when it comes to such publicity, the collective efforts of video producers do go some way to redressing the total imbalance, nay vacuum, of official tourism ministerial productions. Once more, the brewer Estrella Damm is doing its damnedest to promote Mallorca and the Balearics. Its 2012 promotion was a fabulous advert for the Tramuntana and especially its coastal parts. Two years previously it had highlighted Menorca and the Sant Joan fiestas (currently in full swing of course), while last year it was Ibiza and the fabulous short film with Dakota Johnson.

This year's video finds Estrella back in Mallorca, with the lead taken by Jean Reno, the French actor who was born to Spanish parents. (He's been in all sorts of things, such as "Mission Impossible" and "The Da Vinci Code".) Playing a grumpy actor, he finally comes to appreciate "those little things" (the title of the production) by his guide in Mallorca, Laia Costa, and with some help of course from the odd bottle of Estrella. Where was it filmed? Well, taking a look and trying to recognise the locations is half the fun. But as with other Estrella films, it is not just a great advert for the locations, it is also worth watching in its own right because of the story and the acting, thus lending the whole production double power.

The Balearic tourism ministry is very lucky that there are the Estrellas and others doing its work for it. The ministry should package them all up and place them on some as yet undeveloped website. But does it ever take any real notice of what is produced on its behalf?

Blasphemy That Dares Speak Its Name

In November 1976, her crusading zeal and indignation never greater, Mary Whitehouse announced her intention to bring a private prosecution because of a poem that had been published five months earlier. It was to become one of Britain's cause célèbre moral trials, of which those for D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and "Schoolkids Oz" had been earlier ones. But what distinguished this particular trial from others were the theme of homosexuality and the blurring of blasphemy and obscenity.

James Kirkup's "The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name" alluded to having sex with Jesus. It appeared in "Gay News" in June 1976. Five months later, having been shown the poem, Mary Whitehouse was on the case and on a trail that led to the trial at which the publishers were found guilty of blasphemous libel. A suspended sentence given to Denis Lemon was subsequently quashed, but it would be 31 years before blasphemous libel was struck from the list of common law offences.

Come forward almost 40 years since that trial and to a different place - Mallorca - there is great indignation at something which, in a multimedia incarnation of contemporary times, bears similarities with Whitehouse v. Gay News Ltd, with a touch of "Schoolkids Oz" thrown into the mix.

A 17-year-old male pupil at the Josep Maria Llompart school in Palma produced a video as part of his Baccalaureate art studies. He was awarded an "outstanding" mark of nine out of ten, which might have been the end of the matter, had the boy not posted it to his Twitter account, with the video on YouTube. Even in restricted viewing mode, it didn't prevent (one assumes) viewing by those with a Whitehousian flair for rooting out all things un-Christian and/or obscene.

Without going into detail, the video starts with taking a call from God and continues with a mixture of queerdom, swear words and references to sexual acts involving Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Perhaps only in this latter regard might it be said to fundamentally differ to the infamous poem from 1976.

To the fore in the outrage this has caused have been the moral custodians of the Balearic Institute of Family Policy and HazteOir, both of whom might have been expected to have made their objections clear, the latter having started a petition for which some 18,000 signatures have thus far been received. The aim of the petition is to call on the education ministry to act against religious hatred. The Association of Christian Lawyers is also up in arms, preparing a case against the teacher for offences against religious freedoms under Article 525 of the Penal Code and further offences of the corruption of minors and pornography. Its president says that the boy who made the video is a victim.

To their number have been added the voices of the Partido Popular's parliamentary spokesperson, Marga Prohens, and the Ciudadanos parliamentary deputy, Olga Ballester. They have both made similar observations regarding lack of respect of religious believers and for the gay community (there is an interpretation that the video satirises gay stereotypes).

As of the time of writing, the education ministry has had nothing to say on the matter, but it presumably will have to make some statement and not have to wait until parliament sits and questions are demanded of the minister, Martí March. Meantime, the dogs of the media have got the story firmly by the throat and are savaging it for all their worth, making it perhaps ever more imperative that the ministry steps in and at least offers its views.

I make no particular judgement on the affair, not least because it might end up in court, but it does perhaps offer an insight into tensions for a society that has increasingly been losing its religion in a manner not dissimilar to the way in which 1970s Britain had and is thus presented with a case that bears uncanny similarities to a combination of two celebrated trials - Oz and Gay News - which encapsulated much of what Mary Whitehouse deemed the devil of the permissive society.

Is this, therefore, an example of Mallorca playing catch-up? It's stretching things to draw such a conclusion, but what one also has is the tension that religious affairs cause at a political level. Administrations, many of them, might currently be characterised as being anti-religious, or at least indifferent. It's a very different example, but Palma's decision to exclude the mass from its Sant Sebastià fiestas programme can strike one as more than just the assertion of the fiestas being a "lay" occasion. Any response from the ministry, therefore, might be seen within this current context of dominant political ideology.

Meanwhile, there is probably a lesson. If you're going to get top marks for a video with arguably blasphemous content, don't put it up on Twitter. It doesn't take five months now.

The Stigma Of The M-place

Well, it isn't all bad news, you know. There was a headline in one Spanish paper this week which read "Bookings to Magalluf soar". Yep, you could have put money on it, though one can guess which niche of the British tourist market will be doing the soaring. One somewhat larger niche, the great family market, will surely be doing all it can to avoid having to fess up to relatives, friends, neighbours and hairdressers that it is off to the M-place in sunny Spain. "Going anywhere nice on your holidays?" "Erm, yes, erm, Mag ..." "Sorry, where did you say?" God, the stigma of it all. It's like admitting going on holiday to a nudist resort. Or Skegness. 

There is one family, though, which appeared to have been having second thoughts. Letizia was browsing the net for likely holiday destinations when suddenly up popped a short video she hadn't been expecting. "Right, that's it. We're not going to THAT place." Anyway, a sort of bidding war then broke out between Mallorca and Almeria to see which one could ensure the summer holidaying patronage of Felipe, Tizzy and the kids. And if the Costa Almeria (the original Costa del Sol, if you didn't know) were to have won out, what then of the Marivent? It's not as if you can have a damn great palace sitting idle all summer. Perhaps they'd thought of offering it to Carnage and suggesting they added it to the bar crawl itinerary. But it did of course all turn out all right in the end for Mallorca. Put to a family vote, the kids sided with dad. Never mind, Tizzy, there's always next year.

It's not just the royals who have been anxious about being stigmatised with being within several kilometres of the M-place. Mallorca's own royalty, the boy Nadal, has turned his back on the island, too. What an ingrate. No sooner had the Council of Mallorca said that it was putting him up for an "illustrious son" award for being such a splendid ambassador for Mallorca than the illustrious son cleared off to Ibiza on his jollies. Who next? Who else can we expect to say no to Majorca rather than face the stigma-by-association of the M-place? If White Dee says no, then we really know we're in trouble. Mind you, there is always Jeremy Kyle. As they say in short-message social media land: ffs.

A Week Of Living Scandalously

There can never have been a week like the one we have lived through; and if you thought it was all over, it most certainly isn't. Forget transport strikes and holidaymakers trapped at the airport, forget the eco-tax, forget the Icelandic ash cloud, forget the Palmanova bombing. In public relations terms, Mallorca has been brought to its knees, gagging on a short video that has become the butt of jokes and manna from heaven for the media. It has been a week of accusation and incomprehension. The "Majorca Daily Bulletin", as an example, has been accused of keeping alive a story that some consider no longer newsworthy. How can it possibly be no longer newsworthy when the British red tops and even broadsheets are all over the story like an unpleasant rash brought on by a sexually transmitted disease? Those who might prefer there to be no more news are as culpable as the island's institutions have been historically in willing bad news away and in hiding their heads in velvety white sands replete with images of happy families with buckets and spades. This time, it won't go away; there are those who would happily use those spades to bury Magalluf, if not the whole of Mallorca. It has become a story that has spun out of control, certainly out of control of the island's tourism chiefs and Calvia town hall. One that is so out of control that there is now the absurd notion that there could be legal proceedings - not in Mallorca, note - on the grounds of a sexual assault.

The incomprehension has been staggering. The moral outrage does not comprehend a web-based, smartphoned society that thinks nothing of sexting, the suck-and-blow selfie and the exhibitionist home porn movie. The "star" of the Magalluf video may be being cast as a victim, but she found herself on a cast list as infinitely wide as the internet. The response by government has likewise been uncomprehending. The national secretary of state for tourism, Isabel Borrego (and a Mallorcan, to boot), spoke of the need for "awareness". Awareness of what exactly? And how is this awareness to be raised? By a campaign that will cost the equivalent of one-fifth of the total annual tourism promotion budget for the Balearics. It will be waged by means of newspaper announcements and will so be ignored or, if it is seen, will be treated with laughing disdain by its intended audience. The incomprehension is such that the very technology which permitted the video's dissemination is being ignored. And why is it? Because of the inertia of a regional government tourism ministry that does not have this technology at its disposal. It does not cost half a million euros to plaster messages across social media and thus engage more readily and more credibly with that intended audience.

The incomprehension has even come from a body as sensible as Médicos del Mundo. While it rightly observed that the video was not evidence of an "isolated incident" (which regional tourism minister Martínez reckoned), it then went on to attack political double standards, those which, on the one hand, allow Magalluf to be promoted for drunkenness and promiscuity but which, on the other, see prostitutes "harassed and detained with a rigour that the authorities do not apply to the promoters of the degradation in parts of Magalluf". The doctors are, to be blunt, wrong. But at least they have served to remind us all and hopefully Calvia and the regional government that it is the mugger-prostitutes who form the real scandal of Magalluf and not a stupid little video which diverts attention and worryingly gives an excuse for it to not be tackled in any meaningful way.

Damage Prevention: Magalluf and social media

Who would have thought it? Gentlemanly, former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss caught using the c-word to describe Kevin Pietersen. Strauss felt the need to issue an immediate and unreserved apology, though maybe he had nothing to apologise for. He thought he was off air. His mistake was in not knowing that there was a broadcast feed via a Fox Sports app in Australia.

Little that is nowadays said or done is not subject to being brought to the public's attention. Society, in whatever form, has become its own broadcaster. In this multi-connected, networked, voyeuristic world, there can be no room for naïvité. Strauss's bigger mistake was that he was naïve.

Such is the potential for embarrassment that media management should be shifting its emphasis. This management should be about anticipation, about damage prevention, rather than reaction and damage limitation. Nowadays, a media "crisis" can arise frequently and at random; the Murphy's Law for the technological world - what can go wrong will go wrong and will be on everyone's phone. It is naïve to believe that all damage can be prevented, but the need now is to at least try to prevent it. And accepting that it is impossible to prevent all damage, then mechanisms need to be in place to ensure adequate, appropriate and swift responses. Strauss's response was all three. He now surely understands what networked society means.

Amidst all the debate and arguments about the Magalluf video, there is one very important point which stands out. Peter Newey on the Facebook page of "The Bulletin" made it very well: "the only thing that is new is the technology that enables people to video such goings-on and then send them out to watch on their phones". Absolutely. Otherwise, and as many other commentators have observed, there was nothing new. Such goings-on have been going on for years. It's just that they didn't end up on What's App. But now that one has, there are others, and there will doubtless be more. Like happy-slappy copycatism bred filmed-on-phone beatings, there will be happy slappers applying further blows to a reputation that can barely go much lower.

The surprise about the Magalluf video is that there should be any surprise that one of that variety has found its way into the public domain. Technology being as it is, goings-on of this sort having been as common for so many years as they have, it was all but inevitable that one day the public would know and would be able to join in with the voyeurism. So inevitable that it might have been predicted.

You cannot plan for every eventuality. It is ridiculous to suggest that you can. But there are means of damage prevention, when you know all too well the potential sources of damage: the sources that have been goings-on for years and about which nothing has been done. Blame the bar-crawl organisers all that you will, but they are merely the product of historical inaction, of a failure to prevent damage. This failure has finally caught up with Magalluf. Technology has exposed the failure to prevent the damage; its Carnage, if you like. This technology will not go away. If more damage is not to be caused, then the sources of technology's appetite for recording, filming and broadcasting have to be made to go away.

The responses from officialdom to the video, those of outrage and of investigations, will include no admissions of failings, both past and present, no apologies for the abrogations of responsibility by different bodies; the town hall is by no means the only one. Yet, the warning signs were so clearly there. From the broadcast media to informal social media there has been a short but predictable step, one that is more graphic and salacious than the established media, but one that has pandered to the prurient appetite of this media and also of the internet user. When the BBC's Stacey Dooley documentary featured a similar scene, among its various other negative images, the reaction was to condemn the BBC. Even someone like Pepe Tirado of Acotur, a critic of so much that is wrong in Magalluf, leapt to the defence of Magalluf and echoed the condemnation. It may have been Magalluf, but it was our Magalluf, our Mallorcan Magalluf. No one else's. And certainly not one for a foreign broadcaster to be poking its nose into.

But of course it isn't a Mallorcan Magalluf. It is everyone's. And technology makes it so. There may have been some naïvité surrounding the BBC documentary, but there is absolutely no place for naïvité in networked society; social media can wreak havoc, can cause carnage.

The damage is done, but more damage has to now be prevented, and its sources - all of them - eliminated. 

That Video - Some Good From The Carnage?

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MALLORCA TODAY - Police face three-year suspension over Can Picafort video

Santa Margalida town hall is investigating a video in which a drunk tourist is seen defecating in the street in Can Picafort and then walking away with soiled shorts. The video was shot by local police, who, rather than coming to his assistance, mocked him. The officers face a three-year suspension from duty without pay.

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The marvellous video for Estrella Damm beer that was shot in Mallorca caused a great deal of speculation as to where it was filmed and which beaches featured. All is now revealed.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

Make Mine An Estrella

What a video. If you haven't seen the Estrella Damm commercial, then why haven't you? Get on YouTube now, and watch it. It is the best promotional video since Thomson's brilliant "Time For A Holiday" ad for this summer was launched last year, and the Estrella one was shot on Mallorca, unlike Thomson's.

I say promotional video, but it isn't a promotional video for Mallorca. Not officially at any rate. It is a promotion for Estrella Damm beer. I don't know what sort of impact these commercials have on Estrella sales (the commercials are now an annual and much anticipated event), but if nothing else, an immense amount of gratitude should be extended to the Catalonian brewery; the 2012 video does more in terms of Mallorcan promotion than any advert that has ever been the product of governmental control.

Remember the cheesy Nadal-on-a-boat thing? The soundtrack which sounded like it was by The Corrs? Predictable and unimaginative it was. The Estrella video isn't. It tells a story and manages simultaneously to capture all manner of facets of Mallorca that are not confined to its locations (in and around Banyalbufar, it would appear).

The Nadal thing was a total and utter waste of money, a video created in the misguided belief that celebrity sells, when it doesn't. What does sell is emotion, and Estrella's video, like Thomson's, has this by the bucket-load, not sentimentally as was the case with the Thomson ad, but more subliminally. It is charming and a creative work of art of which Estrella, and its agency, should be extremely proud.

While Estrella will anticipate a boost to beer sales, the video is about far more than selling. Estrella has caused something of a sensation with its annual ads. The anticipation of their release matches the anticipation of where they are to be shot and what they will be about. When it was known that Estrella would be coming to Mallorca to shoot this year's video, there was a huge buzz, and the buzz that surrounds the videos extends all the way across the social media spectrum. Estrella goes viral via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

For Estrella Damm, it is primarily about image and brand awareness and brand enhancement. The video is not solely youthful but mainly it is. The brewery has been astute in cultivating a hip image, one that can be clearly seen on its website. Here, there are examples of bold bottle design and of associations with youth culture and music - Lana Del Ray, Dizzee Rascal, The Chemical Brothers, they all find their way into the Estrella orbit, along with, for an older market, the Human League and Roxy Music. Posters for music events, such as that staged at the old brewery in 2010 and which featured Belle and Sebastian, are retro in a style reminiscent of the 1930s; the one for the 2010 event looks as though a giant young woman has replaced King Kong.

It is very, very clever marketing, and its cleverness, innovation, image creation, brand enhancement, use of internet and social media contrasts massively with the staid approach of official Mallorcan and Balearic promotion. Tired, uninspiring websites, an apparent indifference to social media, a lack of innovation. Amidst all the debate about what should be promoted about Mallorca, e.g. for boosting winter tourism, it is all too easy to forget about how it should be promoted. Instead of the introspective and formulaic approach that is normally adopted, a leaf out of the Estrella book should be taken.

Estrella's advertising campaign is apparently costing 2.5 million euros, and its advert is to be aired for the first time in the UK this year (I'm not sure if it is the whole video or a cut-down version or whether it might just be for cinemas). This isn't a huge amount, but it's rather more than the Balearic Government has at its disposal. Yet, if a similar buzz could be created by an advert that is official promotion for Mallorca, the costs of production and advertising would all be worthwhile. The Estrella video is not just an advert, it is an event; this is the cleverness of it, a cleverness that has eluded those responsible for official tourism promotions.

Still, the Balearic Government will doubtless be grateful to Estrella for doing its job for them. Maybe in fact the video is an example of tourism privatisation. And why not? That there are some beer bottles being handed around, well fine. Beer is drunk on holiday, it is very much part of a holiday. Let Estrella do Mallorca's advertising for it, and one thing's for sure, it would do an altogether more effective job than has been the case up to now.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Estrella Damm video unveiled

The making of the annual commercial for Estrella Damm beer is quite a thing in the Balearics. The Catalonian brewery chooses locations on the islands for shooting the commercials, which are, as with the one this year, the length of a typical music video. So, spot the locations, if you can. The video is excellent.