The Pitch – Should companies be forced to apologize to Nigeria?

September 22, 2009 – 9:53 am – No Comment

Nigerian Scam

Should companies be forced to apologize to Nigeria for “offending” the country?

Question:

After Sony released a commercial that made light of Nigerian 419 scams(You know, the one where the price of Nigeria sends you $1 million as long as you Western Union him $5,000 or something like that), Nigerian officials said that Sony should apologize for the commercial. It also happened with the movie District 9. In the movie, there are a group of Nigerian criminals and the country is now not screening that movie anymore either and is calling for an apology. Should companies apologize for showing Nigeria in a poor light?

Answer:

No. I think that if Nigeria wants an apology, then perhaps the country should do something about the amount of illegal activity that goes on in the country. When there were traces run on the scams that were said to be from Nigeria, guess what, they originated from Nigeria.

Also, think of how movie studios portray criminals from any country. The villains in movies are always ruthless and you are made to hate them. I have watched District 9 a handful of times now and I have to say that as bad as the Nigerian criminals in this movie are, the MNU is far worse. I think Nigerian officials missed the point of the movie if all they saw was the Nigerian criminals.

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