Jordanian English “Life Style” Magazines: Elitism manifested, deluded & superimposed!

When I sample through such magazines, I immediately imagine an English single mother dating a Frenchman with a troubled sex life and a financial leverage to drink tea at the Dorchester hotel in London, in contrast with the profile of their potential readers from Jordan’s upper spheres!

First of all, why are they in English? I feel the big “I am Hypocrite” superscript floating on top of me right now since I am blogging in English, yet I still don’t get it, many magazines around the world are specialty magazines with limited readership that targets a limited specifically-interested niche willing to pay a premium for a magazine that wobbles about the bizarre interest they may have, and I know for sure that there’re business that exploits such interests whom are willing to pay a premium to advertise on these specialty magazines…. Nothing wrong with that (in terms of business)

But this is not the case with “life style” magazines; by definition they should be generic, variant and diverse in essence, as the sum of its material and editorials should have the widest circulation and appeal possible! So how could this be the case when the first thing such magazines do is minimizing their readership circle to the English-speaking niche only!

Perhaps they publish in English in order to "reach out" to the assumed-to-exist like-minded mindsets? and I ask; since when does mentalities can be profiled based on language?

They might be profitable for some awkward reason that mostly has to do with the conjured dynamics of the Jordanian marketplace… but definitely they have no clue who are they selling their magazines for and who's reading it.

I still feel mystified whenever I have the opportunity to vigilantly read through these magazines (frankly to avoid obscene imagery) as I am not sure who are they targeting? Just for once, I would like to plot a pattern of potential readers that fit a certain trend in our Jordanian society that can be identified by the publishers as a potential customer?

I feel disgusted every time I quote glimpse of the disgraceful publication “Layalina”, though I applaud the way they have conceptualized the magazine and how it gained steady foot in the market, the people behind it obviously did their homework, they identified a paying niche that would like to see people and be seen with people around town, and envisaged a magazine that fits their level of intelligence and involvement; minimum reading and maximum visual stimulus at a rather small premium with lots of potential advertisers! Later on, the poor "Layalina" punters are now paying to get their pictures floated on it while the magazine itself is being franchised around the region… a fine entrepreneurship example... alas in the wrong direction.

But the case of “Layalina” is solid even in the face of a fundamentalist like myself, I can confront its editors and ask them “Who reads your magazine?” and they’ll have an answer ready for me; I’ll give away my new car for anyone who can concisely outline the profile of the potential, say “Luxury” or “living well” magazines readers without referring to the fact that they have money to fork around on pointless publications!

Then comes the issue of content: The etiquettes of eating deserts? How to dump your boyfriend painlessly? 10 ways to enhance your sex life? 54 ways to know that he was cheating? Things to consider before buying a Yacht? How to get over an affair? Choosing the perfect Cigar to go with your cocktail party?… Oh’please… where do they think we're living at, my stomach is aching!

Thier professoinal look and feel, and the high caliber writing they may sport is not in question here, it just doesn’t make sense, which part of our culture do these magazines represent? What background do they come from? Do they reflect our reality as a whole society or just samples of unique individuals or phenomenas from it, or perhaps a mere imaginary society that is assumed to exist in the superb of Amman?

Why can’t they address serious issues rather than mimicking editorials and superimposing them upon the helpless niche that barely understand proper English yet alone to comprehend what it means to have a genuine “life style” in the first place?

Why can’t they tackle issues that are truly crippling the niche society they are targeting and the society as a whole: issues like the social inequality we live in, the surge in divorce rates, premarital sex, teenage pregnancies, insect sex, and tragic stories of gambling & alcohol poisoning… mind the cant-see-but-pure-evil rhetoric here

This might be too much to ask from a revenue seeking magazine, a publication full of such gibberish won’t sell for sure, but at least, when these magazines decide to get serious with their editorials, then at least they can pick issues and stories from our local environment!

At the end of this indiscriminate bash on a whole industry, I find myself obliged to credit “Jo” Magazine for they truly stand apart from its peers, despite the fact that they suffer from the same confused image they reflect, in general however; they exhibit sincerity, objectiveness and a professional editorial feel throughout the magazine, as they mostly seem focused on whom they’re targeting… I wish they do away with the semi/naked imagery and pointless articles!

A Speculation: MobileCom’s shy “Orange” rebranding!

I am a loyal MobileCom customer, though I do find myself skeptical of how they ran their business ever since they entered the market 5 years ago with a favorable duopoly that could have been better utilized to rapidly capture market share and block the polarization of the market to avoid creating a mammoth out of the first operator Fastlink!

Beside that, it seems they have finally understood the dynamics of the market despite their years of shameful financial performance and ridicule market penetration, a bit latent perhaps; but in no contrast to Fastlink's practice, who only realized the true potential of the market when it felt the nearing of competition, which proved to be impotent at the time!

It is no secret, MobileCom is JT’s baby, and JT is France telecom adopted baby, the latter have many operations around the world, and most of it’s mobile networks are branded as “Orange”, a brand that originated in the UK.

For the past two years, I was aware that MobileCom was enjoying a degree of technical backing from France Telecom through its Mobile arm “Orange”, especially with the entrance of XPress as a new player in the local market with incomparable set of technological credentials, as they tried to patch up a service similar to the latter’s push-to-talk offering...

But only recently did it become apparent that Orange is now influencing MobileCom in terms of marketing and branding!

MobileCom website had a recent facelift, and not surprisingly, it used the exact template used by most Orange websites around the world (there are 15+ of them). And despite the different tone of the color orange that is used in the coloring scheme, everything else is almost identical…

Enter their running ad campaigns, they have standardized the use of black background and a certain font and layout that are also consistent with Orange branding throughout their operations around the world. My speculation would be that MobileCom are in the middle of a shy rebranding, perhaps in the coming months they’ll boost the tone of the orange color to match Orange’s distinct level, and later use the same packaging style, price-plans structures dictated by Orange until the switchover becomes a matter of a mere overnight logo swap -almost.

The benefits will be that MobileCom will enjoy the powerful synergy stemming from the utilization of an international brand (perhaps mobile content blah blah), and enhance their market penetration and segmentation capabilities.

On the down side, it’ll definitely loose its local feel as a Jordanian operator, as well as the perpetuating benefit for being the first to dedicate a portion of its resources to offer tailored packages to the service men and women of the Armed forces. A major backlash can also be expected if it was associated with Orange's Israeli operation, as the brand "Orange" in general is widely recognized as an Israeli brand here in Jordan, this is not the case for sure, yet such misconception would require heavy campaigning in order ot be addressed, without anticipating it to be cleansed any time soon.

Yet another twist in the Jordanian mobile communication sector that will only enforce its utter uniqueness!

Typicalism

Since everyone seems to be in the business of coining terms these days, I’d like to have a go on that and perhaps credit myself with some novelty while I'm on it!

I’d like to coin the term “Typicalism”... It is already underlined with a red scribble by the spell checker, and Google returned no credible references for it, so I’ll entertain no claims over it, perhaps I can prefix it with the tag “Jordanian”... Now, allow me to dwell upon you with what I mean with it!

Basically, it can be either a syndrome that people who are usually identified to be “typical” suffer from, or it could be the social phenomena of being unable to identify the people around you or their acts with anything but being typical, a matter of crude perspective really!

One cannot help but notice how typical people can be sometimes! It is not that one can be so full of himself that he can no longer appreciate genuinely distinct individuals or their perspectives, but in our lame society that oozes with “typicalist” tendencies, people seems to be easily polarized and unconsciously segregated into mimicked herds sporting replicated and consumed ideas and point of views that seems to be viciously dull and awfully repeated over and over again.

The interesting aspect of typicalism though; is that people from different circles of the society can find themselves –to the awe of those usually at top- conjugated together under one “typical” perspective, especially when it comes to affairs that is widely viewed as a social axiom of an obvious nature!

Consider this: if you happen to be in your mid-to-late twenties and essentially unmarried, and you happen to be in a Jaha, engagement or wedding, you can easily identify an obvious trace of typicalism by observing the swarms of annoying sweet-talking wholehearted -allegedly- complements and pats-on-the-shoulder from every other co-guest: in the line of “3ugbalak… when you'll get married?” or “Shed il-Himmih… bidna inshoof 3arees”

Or consider this one: you are a Tawjhi student, and everyone starts treating you with flaring typicalism, be it your close family, extended one or even your all-over-the-place neighbors, you get bombarded with the same old questions, recommendations, directions or merely the uncalled-for motivational I’ve-been-there old Tawjhi stories! In return, you as a frustrated Tawjhi student; cannot help but retaliate with acts of utter typicalism, such as finding a strong urge for a private tutor, or skipping family functions to go out with friends in the name of studying! In case you fail to skip it, you blame your engagement with those many family events for your poor performance!

Or you can consider this one: if you happen to sport a fist-long beard, then you should expect to hear the same set of mimicked comments, advises and lectures from almost every other person you meet, wither someone he's acquainted to you or a complete stranger! -Personally speaking- No one seems to be able to amaze me with an alternative perspective when it comes to beards! from the open-minded claimants of western Amman to the bored passport control officers at Queen Alia airport, typicalism vividly manifest itself in the terminology used, objections, speculations and facial gestures; it just repeats itself whenever a beard is sighted!

Regardless of your age, sex, ethnic background, upbringing, level of education or current mind-set, you are bound to be suffering from one symptom of typicalism or the other, and therefore you are bound to have been the victim of circumstantial typicalism at best. Cases like the above are numerous, I can pat my chest with confidence and swear with my semi-shaved moustache that everyone can think of a personal yet typical encounter with our society -or a member of it- that rings a bill or two.

I must admit though that typicalism is not much of a serious deficiency as social profiling -for instance- may will be, you’ll find them conjugated when someone is at fault with profiling, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the other way around, for typicalism at worse can be an annoying little gesture, comment or advise that most of us can hear and let-go in peace despite its repulsive and aggregating nature.

Typicalists -or tepe(s) in slang- are mostly harmless people in essence if took at face value, for they are by definition typical people going about thier lives in a typical manner and sporting typical views!

Typicalism is trait that thrives in oblivious and debasingly-hallow societies, especially when there’s no strict code of conduct in place for either people to go about their lives on the basis of freedom of choice, or preferably an enforced yet consistent and unprejudiced set of rules, references and directives.