Friday, March 16, 2007

They just don't get it


"Yo Yo! everybody! respect the police 4 life!" Pfff they just don't get it. The regional police of Amsterdam wants to have more coloured people in their corps.

How do they reach this group of people? The answer is rap.
The police of Amsterdam is organising a rap battle where rap talents can show their qualities. It's like the Idols for rap. But the lyrics aren't the same as the ones of big stars like 50 Cent or The Game, the lyrics are about Respect to the police. The people who call themselves "The Blue squad" are no local heroes. The blue squad only contains people who think they can rap. They are just a bunch of rappers from Amsterdam Bijlmer who told the police that they are really cool! Their not. They made this stupid song in which they rap about how the police needs Respect. And if they want to convince people to join the corps of Amsterdam, this is the way how not to do it.

If you think approaching your target group with a urban tone of voice is cool. Your wrong. You just look silly. Unless you add local heroes in your campaign. In this campaign they didn't. The police tried to promote their urban rap battle by giving away thousands of copies of Cd's, which contains nothing but the worst rap about Respect. I also got a copy at the Amstelstation and I just wondered what crap it was. 100 meters further I knew some people thought the same. I saw hundreds of Cd's in the trash. And everybody in the Netherlands pays tax for this. If some company financed it, I could laugh about it. Now I can just cry about it.

If the police really want to add some coloured people to the corps of Amsterdam. Don't come up with a stupid rap battle about respect to the police. Just say you want coloured people in the corps. Don't make the target group feel stupid by thinking every young person likes urban rap.

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