Following the recent discovery of serial attempts to
defame Amstel Malta, through concocted video productions, the nation’s security
agencies have begun a massive cyber hunt for the brains behind the act.
In August 2016,
Amstel Malta, the premium, low sugar formulated malt drink from the stable of
Nigerian Breweries, launched a new credential campaign #WhyAddMore. Shortly
after the campaign, a picture went viral that a fake version of the Amstel
Malta is in circulation. This was because the new packaging wore the new NIS
logo while the old packaging had the old NIS logo of the Standard Organisation
of Nigeria.
Soon after this, the Nigerian consumers were greeted with
another offensive video of an Amstel Malta can drink allegedly containing a
strange object. A faceless consumer recorded an alleged contaminated drink and
circulated it on social media.
The company thereafter reported the defamation attempt to
the security agencies for further investigation.
However, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the
statutory body that is vested with the responsibility of standardising and
regulating the quality of all products in Nigeria, debunked the claims by a
faceless video producer of a fake Amstel Malta in circulation.
Mr. Fred Akingbesote, Deputy Director, who represented
the Director General of the organisation, explained to Journalists in Lagos
that Nigerian Breweries have met all SON safety and quality requirements and
have complied with all requirements of the new National Industrial Standard
(NIS) logo.
He maintained that the people behind the defamation are
just playing on the intelligence of Nigerians. “We have a web site (www.son.gov.ng)
which contains all information on our standards and quality regulations. Every
Nigerian who has doubts about any product certified by SON should crosscheck
the facts”, he said.
Forensic and marketing analysts have also observed that
it is very clear that the same source that initially created a video of a
purported ‘fake ’ or ‘original’ but who
could not sustain the fabrication is the source responsible for the current orchestration and poor
dramatization of discovery of foreign content.
Analysts and observers agreed that this might be coming
from the enemy’s camp as the recording left many gaps to cast a doubt on the
genuineness of the video. For instance, the can was opened before the video
recording, thus failing the basic test of validity.
They maintained that a careful look at the video reveals
a lot of inconstancies and fallacies such as:
Ø The can was not transparent for a consumer to see the
content before pouring it
Ø It is technical impossible to have a foreign object in
non-reusable container like a can
Ø The content was poured into a bowl instead of a cup
ready for drinking
Ø The content was not foaming like the normal Amstel Malta
Ø All the persons in the video were faceless
Ø The video camera was targeted severally at the Can to
flash the logo of the product (perhaps to cause more damage to the premium
brand)
Ø The ‘consumer’ did not tell us how he got to know that
there was an object in the can.
Ø There was no mention of where it was bought or any
intention to confront the retailer.
According to the analysts, the attempt remains a
despicable and dirty way to ignite a brand war by exploiting the gullibility
and stupidity of many social media users.
Marketing experts also maintained that the ‘sword’ may
have emanated from interested industry persons who are afraid of the flight of
Amstel Malta in Nigeria’s marketing space..
“The video is nothing but another dimension to our usual
'PHD' (pull him /her down) attempt characteristic of people on the floor. Let
us spoil a good name if we can't be as good. It is therefore surprising that
anybody would want to attack the reputation of one of our premium products
whose market leadership is undisputable in its segment”, a Lagos-based
marketing analyst submitted last week.
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