Until now, airlines couldn’t have direct flights from Kenya to the United States: Travelers had to change planes in a third country because Kenya’s biggest airport didn’t meet the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s safety and security standards to send planes here directly. Now non-stop flights are beginning, and that means direct shipments of fresh vegetables and flowers. [More]
africa
6 Months Later, No One Knows Why My Ticket Home From Nairobi Was Canceled
By 5.23.16
When traveling, sometimes you wish you could stay in your destination forever… or at least for another week to enjoy it more. A woman from Pennsylvania extended her trip to Kenya last year by an extra week, but not because she was having such a wonderful time. Her return tickets had been mysteriously canceled, and no one could tell her why it had happened. [More]
Zambia Will Soon Be The Home Of The Whopper
By 3.9.15
Burger King has spent this decade changing up its business model and potentially the way the entire fast food business works. Part of their bold strategy has been rapid international expansion with the help of their franchisees. What’s the next big growth market for the chain? Africa. [More]
GoDaddy CEO Shoots Elephant, Sparks Stampede Of Customers To Flee
By 3.31.11
The CEO of domain name registrar GoDaddy is facing an online furor after the video he posted of himself killing an elephant in Africa went viral. After the elephant dies and CEO Bob Parsons poses next to it, villagers from all around come out to strip and devour the carcass on the spot. Many of them are wearing day-glo orange GoDaddy caps. As these images play in the video, “Hells Bells” provides the soundtrack. Now a backlash movement has started for folks to switch their domain providers away from GoDaddy. [More]
BP Gulf-Sized Spilling Occurs In Nigeria Annually, But Nobody Cares
By 6.15.10
For America, the BP spill in the Gulf is a “tragedy that never should have happened,” requiring, “the largest environmental response in this country’s history. In Nigeria, they just call it “Thursday.” [More]
Continental To Open Its First Nonstop Route To Africa
By 6.14.10
Despite its name, Continental Airlines Inc. had always omitted one continent from its destinations — Africa. But that’s going to chance in November 2011 when the airline will begin flying nonstop from its Houston hub to Nigeria. [More]
Tmobile: Pay $239 For Calls You Didn't Make To Africa
By 12.17.07
Mike had his phone stolen and $239 in fraudulent calls made to Africa on November 4th, and even though he reported the charges on November 5th, Tmobile says he still has to pay up. Their inviolable policy is that you’re responsible for the charges up until you report the phone as stolen. Mike recorded his failed attempts to get Tmobile to credit his account.
Point/Counterpoint: (RED) Raises $100 Million, Spends 82% On Advertising
By 3.9.07
(RED), the global co-branding experiment that directs a percentage of (RED) product revenues towards fighting AIDS in Africa, has only directed $18 million out of $100 million spent. AdAge reports that this is raising eyebrows other than our own.
The disproportionate ratio between the marketing outlay and the money raised is drawing concern among nonprofit watchdogs, cause-marketing experts and even executives in the ad business. It threatens to spur a backlash, not just against the Red campaign — which ambitiously set out to change the cause-marketing model by allowing partners to profit from charity — but also for the brands involved.
Charities are usually judged on the percent of contributions spent on programs, rather than administration. (RED) is not a charity. In a letter to AdAge’s editor, (RED)’s CEO Bobby Shriver explains why this makes all the difference.
Because (RED) is explicitly NOT a charity, we encourage our partners to go about their business including their marketing. This sells the products; the products generate the $25 million. In addition, this marketing would have been spent anyway, on other product lines. It never would have been (nor will it ever be) given to the Global Fund.
We tell you who’s right, after the jump.
100 Years of PR Celebrated With World’s Largest Cake!
By 10.13.06
Oh jeez, just spotted this [update: wonderful bit of satire] at Strumpette.
No, Really, WaMu Gave Out Counterfeit $100s
By 10.5.06
Despite the horde of commenters asserting he got slipped fake $100s by an African Safari company, reader BC persists in laying the blame on WaMu.
WaMu Gives Out Counterfeits, Doesn’t Care
By 10.4.06
BC hit a hiccup on his African safari honeymoon. When he went to pay the adventure company with $100s his wife took out their WaMu bank in ATM, three of the Franklins turned out to be counterfeit.
‘Jesus Cures Aids,’ Promises Ohio Preacher to African Poor
By 4.7.06
An American preacher on Crusade [sic] in Africa offers an unusal come-on to Lesotho’s poor: he cures AIDS.
Consumerist Contamination of Ghana
By 1.4.06
Over at the New York Times, Princeton philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has written an extremely thoughtful look on the cultural and consumerist “contamination” of traditional Ghanaian life. There’s so many good quotes in it, we could just go nuts with the blockquote tags, but overall, it is a remarkably fair piece on the recent influx of Western media and products into a largely agrarian, tribal African country; a piece on contamination, unlike most, that doesn’t sneer at third-world consumers as unthinking automatons too ignorant and unworldly to see their kente cloths as more “authentic” than imported Levis, but people who make cultural and consumerist choices based upon their own free desires, and who should be encouraged to continue doing so as the drivers of their own cultural destiny.
