image by António Martins, 11 February 2008
Last modified: 2014-03-08 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
Keywords: mediamarkt | parvonia | clown | disc (red on white) | stars: 2 (black) | star: 5 points (black on white) |
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MediaMarkt is a German consumer electronics chain store, with branches in
Greece, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Russia, France, and
the Netherlands, being currently Europe's largest retailer of consumer
electronics. (See Wikipedia.)
Its main slogan is «Ich bin doch nicht blöd!», meaning
«I am not stupid» and localized in several languages (meaning
that clients will not be fooled to buy for higher prices what Media Markt
allegedly sells for less), and its advertisements likewise lean on blunt,
crude humor.
António Martins, 11 February 2008
Starting in Feb. 2007, the Portuguese branch of Media Markt aired the
Parvonia advertisement campaign on TV, radio, print media and outdoors.
This stemmed from Portuguese "parvo" ("fool"), from the local version
of the main slogan («Eu é que não sou
parvo!» = «It's not me who's a fool!»). It portraits
visitors from the fictional country Parvonia,
spelled Parvònᴉa
(upper case: PARVÒИIA), «where everybody is such a fool they don't mind paying high
prices and ignore modern gadgets», arriving at a Media Markt store
and making a fool of themselves as they marvel at the low prices and state of
the art gadgetry. (See this video and this video.)
António Martins, 11 February 2008
image by António Martins, 11 February 2008
Parvonia has a flag, among other assorted regalia. This flag features in advertisement photographs of the four members of the visiting committee (President, General, Boy Scout, and Beauty Queen — all but the latter shown wearing or holding a flag) as can be seen here:
It is a white flag ~2:3 with two black stars in a row above a red disc,
all centered, making up a stylized clown's face. (I must say that I
dislike the basic assumptions of this kind of advertisement and this one
campaign is particularly unpleasant to me. But I have to admit that the flag
is very aptly designed.
António Martins, 11 February 2008
