Steen: On Advertisements

- Houses are painted bright colors here if they advertise for a cell phone company. The big ones to paint here are TiGo and Zain. These houses are often lime green, magenta, bright blue, or yellow. There are often also ads for the other companies hanging on banners, VodaCom, TCCL, and CelTel. I wonder how much money people get if they advertise for these companies, or is it just that their houses receive a fresh coat of paint? What are the terms of the agreement?
- Cocacola has a stronghold in these parts. Many signs for towns (Karibu Bukoba!), schools (Happy Primary Elemtnary), or whatnot are written in black letters on a white background next to or underneath a big red Coca-cola sign about 2-3 times the size of the sign itself. All the softdrinks we have here are made by Coke. Coke, Sprite, Fanta (Orange, Passion, Grape, Black Current), Krest (Bitterlemon or Tonic), Spar-Letta are all made by Coke. Dasani is one of three bottled water brands here. We have seen a few old Pepsi signs around, but they are far and few between and seem older than the bright Coke signs. We have also yet to taste a Pepsi product in Tanzania.