Golly! Has it really been ten long years?He's started to pop up around the city again, little splashes of yellow now adorn every street sign and grassy verges carry life-sized statues of the infinite-eyed one. Soon we'll be inundated with the little swine (sorry, 'beloved icon') and his unique brand of fun. And somehow I think we're going to see more of him than usual as Dubai kicks into uber-promotional mode to counter the slowdown.
Membership of that naughty Facebook group has started to rise again. I wouldn't mind taking anyone's money that it'll be over the 1,000 mark by the weekend.
We can only be grateful that they left it so late to get everything going - it's only three days until the Dubai Summer Surprises shopping festival starts and he's only just starting to pop up everywhere.
Apparently Modhesh Fun City is to become Modhesh World this year. The slightly muckle-headed announcement fails to give a location, but we can only assume the Airport Expo. This will be home, the announcement gushes, to over 37,000 square metres of fun.
I can't wait.
The My Modhesh website is currently crashing when you click on any of the tabs to the left of the home page, which is quite fun. And the DSF Website is still carrying January dates on its page heads and a January release on its home page, despite all the over-excited claptrap on there about how Modhesh is a harbinger of cheer for small children everywhere. Mind you, it could be worse. It could be 'Under Construction' like the Dubai Summer Surprises website!
They'll need to spruce those up in the next day or two, won't they?
13 comments:
Ha... The DSS site is not just "Under construction". It's "Underconstruction"... They can't even spell that right!
omg - that maggot is evvvvvvviiillllllllll....his voice sends shivers down my spine.
Right....So the Group on Facebook is active again..I urge everyone to participate in the dialogue and invite your friends!!!
Hey, I built that under construction page five years ago! WTF? j/k
10 years of Modhesh already? Man I'm getting old.
In defence of Modhesh, its purpose is to target the psychologic ally underdeveloped anyways, so perhaps it's OK that the bar is real real low.
What happened to the yellow monster's Hollywood career?
Websites not working or out of date? No surprise there. As we know, organisations here don't believe in websites or e-mail.
If you want information about the yellow maggot you'll have to fax them or call in personally to the office (which has no address and to which no-one can give clear directions).
(I love the word verification I have to type in: whomper )
While I have a lot of misgivings and complaints about Dubai, especially recently with the way things are being handled, my sense of integrity and honesty makes me differ with the original post and the comments.
Modhesh is a successful part of Dubai. As a marketeer, I would say that we all are not part of the target audience. Rather, it is the children of Dubai and the rest of the GCC/Arab countries.
Developing a brand icon who is recognizable in terms of identity, form and color is a testament to smart thinking by the DSS comittee. Making him relevant to children as a character while at the same time having a commercial purpose (to promote the shopping malls) as a local character is a brilliant move. His Arabness (via his name) identifies him with the region and elevates him on a standing to compete with other global icons such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (who recently celebrated his 75 year anniversary).
I remember some previous years when I was returning to Dubai from Riyadh (I think), how a Saudi girl got all excited when he came on the screen to welcome people to Dubai. She shouted excitedly to her mother: Modhesh!!!
We need a little joy this upcoming summer. Modhesh might provide that.
He is still a little twerp.... They shouldn't put him so close to the edge of the road, makes me want to drive up the kerb...
Siwash: how much are DSS paying you for your pro-worm post?
Actually nothing as you should check out my latest blog post whereby I criticize. I try to be balanced in those things as I posted a critical comment on another post about real estate.
@Siwash.... according the facebook group "Death to Modhesh" at least 980 people disagree with you...
I'm not the target audience for Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and so you don't tell me I grew up with them I'm also not the target audience for Aladdin, the Little Mermaid and Barbie but I don't cringe at the thought of them nor do I feel like I want to rip their heads off when I see them.
The same cannot be said about the yellow worm or the purple abomination that is Barney. Fortunately I am not bombarded with Barney in Dubai and it can be acceptable in small doses, but MODHESH is out of control.
I'm sure DSS would be more than happy to give you the job to market Modhesh to their target audience since you're among the few that would do the job with no hipocricy.... right?
Anyways, everyone's entitled to their opinion, so feel free to be a Modhesh supporter and expect the worm to spread joy...but as far as I'm concerned, next time I see a modhesh walking around the streets of Dubai, I'm getting checked for swine flu!
My son, who will be five later this year, absolutely loved Modhesh till about last year. Now he is couldn't care less. He recently saw the one standing ourside the Souk Madinat and could just vaguely recall him. Seems the average age for Modhesh lovers is about three and a half...
Yes, psychologically underdeveloped as in...children. What else would I have meant? ;)
Building a brand around a character or mascot is not exactly anything new or novel though so I don't really see why anyone should rush in too quickly to congratulate Dubai on this wonderful momentum visionary acheivement. Especially with the budget they've chucked at DSS over the years....
No hating here though, just par for the course.
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