Happy Lusaka VS. Happy Harare: Who Did it Better, Zedians or Zimbos?
The Despical Me 2 soundtrack has taken the world by storm thanks the to creative genius of Pharrell Williams. As a result, the world responded by making parodies of the music video by emulating the style in the original video of regular people dancing in the street because of being “happy”. It can’t be helped, the song is catchy. So Harare and Lusaka made their parodies as well with Harare taking the lead. And now it’s a case of Happy Lusaka vs Happy Harare.
7,349 versus 123,970 views on Youtube. One was posted on Aprill 22, while the other on April 7. Population of Lusaka is estimated to be around 2,191,996 while Harare stands at 2,123,132. They say numbers don’t lie. So we wonder which concept of virality exists in Zambia. Maybe it’s not just part of our culture, or is it?
For Zambians, word of mouth is still the most powerful tool of things going viral. Hearing through the grapevine is perhaps the most effective way to spread any news then it get complemented by social media. The same thing happened with the Alangizi video and eventually the Pontiano Kaiche Nipple-gate. However, the Clara Ngoma story was different as that purely went viral on Facebook and then complemented by word of mouth.
The Happy Lusaka video was the brainchild of iConnect Zambia an Internet Service Provider company and produced by Global Studios, Lusaka. Although there was a prelude to the Lusakan Parody, it is disappointing to see that the Youtube views are still under 10,000 while Zimbos own is past 100,000 views. C’mon Zedians!
While the digital wave still roars and soars high, it’s only sensible for any business to take advantage of the use of digital and social media for advertising. For instance, now we will always know that iConnect Zambia was the company behind Happy Lusaka and they drilled it in our heads that they are Zambia’s number one ISP.
According to a TechZim article, where they interviewed the creators of the Happy Harare video, it was said that part of the video’s success is owed to the large Zimbabwean diasporan community which has been drawn to the video largely because of its ability to create an emotive connection. Perhaps this I Luv Zed campaign will kick-start a sense of pride and ownership among Zambians.
Featured Image credit: iConnect Zambia Facebook
