Having finally arrived at the last couple of working days of what has been, without too much of an understatement, a pretty tough year I am only too happy to fulfill my obligations to those few loyal readers and send you off towards the break with a little light entertainment.
Once a decade or so, you happen across a piece of communications work that is so audacious in its conception, so consummate in its execution and so dazzling in its strategic vision that there is no response more appropriate than a stunned, slack-jawed silence.
This video has that presence. For me, it is far and away the most compelling content created by public sector communicators in, well, as long as I care to remember. It is the work of the Singapore government’s Media Development Authority and I urge you to take four and a half minutes out of your day to sit back, pump up the volume and gawp.
One further point: I haven’t actually managed to make it to the end of the video, but I am convinced that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant must be credited as the executive producers…
[RSS readers click through for the video]
On that note, I’ll wish you all a safe break. Transmission will resume in mid-January.
Hat tip: Red
13 Comments
One of the best things I’ve seen all year!
Jason - have a great Christmas and thanks for blogging
Jason–Merry Christmas!
Thanks for the awesome posts this year. You’ve been giving us a steady stream of great stuff. This post is no exception. Talk about blowing the doors off of what a public sector organization can do to connect with its audience.
Thanks again!
Mike & David: thank you for reading and commenting. I take it from both your reactions that you’d like to see me busting some rhymes in 08?
Merry Christmas.
happy christmas!
i’m sure you’d be unsuprised at the high amount of stuff off this blog that has worked its way into thinkpieces and documents here at [another public service agency]
and my maxim for this seasons festivities is “ham, lamb, AND chicken”
Jason - I couldn’t even begin to list all the public service peeps I’d love see bustin’ rhymes in 08
Thanks Che: I’m waiting for you to post your christmas video — how to make turducken. Mmm
Mike: like this?
Have a great festive break Jason (and Mike & Che) - thanks so much for the blog.
Turducken? Pah!
Check this out!
they’ve killed 48 birds of 12 different species. it has enough meat to serve 125 people, contains about 50,000 calories and takes more than eight hours to cook…
the toffs have *always*, always gotta go over the top.
Awesome vid! Interesting that it’s in english…
I once had an idea for a recruitment video like this for NZ PS using Smashmouth’s “All-Star” as the soundtrack. Lucky I’m in IT instead, eh?
Have a good break and we’ll catch you in the New Year
I am awe-struck with public servants attempting to communicate in a new media - well done Singapore. Would senior NZ public servants be able to do this?
Yes Mark, the first thing that struck me was that the video was in english. It is scary on a number of levels: the out of the box thinking, and the use of a language that is not the communicator’s 1st language. The former speaks to the culture within MDA, and the latter speaks to the Singaporean education system.
In answer to Mike’s question: no, I don’t believe that senior NZ public servants could all rap in the same non-english language.
@Mark: thanks Marcus – and you.
@Mike: would senior public servants be able to do this? God, I hope not.
@Clifton: I have to disagree – I think that they could, but they would end up looking just as uncomfortable as the managers in this video do…
Specatcular, huh. Some comments:
- Engish is a formal equal-first language in Singapore, alongside Mandarin Chinese (and slightly above the other first-equal languages, Tamil and Bahasa Malaya). All Singaporeans of a certain age or backround are formally educated from a very early age in English. 95% of all signage is in English.
- But what you hear most often are Singlish (google it: kick-ass melange of all four of the above plus a whole bunch of vernacular colloquialisms) and Hokkien (a dialect of Mandarin?).
- Nevertheless, the English spoken by upper-class Singaporeans is a really, really odd BBC-influenced hyper-stiff language. It’s really painful to listen to, kind of like Fridge Magnet Poetry (the same words used over and over again and in orders that are technically correct but sound horribly forced.)
- Having said THAT, you should really see the video of Lee Hsien Loong (Prime Minister) delivering his 40-minute State Of The Nation speech in all four official languages, one after the other. Come on Helen, let’s have it in English, Maori, Fijian and Afrikaans!
- All of which goes some way to explaining the mysterious delivery style in this video, but NONE of which goes any way to explaining what the HELL they were thinking.
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