Thread by @rhizomyx

Huge red flag! State-owned TV just posted a new cringeworthy "patriotic song" about defeating the enemies of the people. Very reminiscent of old regime propaganda and aesthetics. But hey, state-owned TV never made its own revolution. Another sector that evaded reform.

https://twitter.com/_Tornada/status/1421593904764399616

Here's the link to the video. The usual technical amateurism of state-owned TV: mono sound, they forgot to include the track on the right channel. Some things never change. facebook.com/TVN.Tunisie/po…

Nadia Akacha, the President's Chief of Staff shared this on her Facebook page.

Akacha actually posted this on her profile before national TV uploaded it, which suggests that the Presidency might have commissioned the song.

https://twitter.com/_Tornada/status/1421594539282808832

Counter-productive! People in the comments find it reminiscent of old regime kitsch propaganda.

This reminds me of the stuff that happened invariably every time I worked on international development projects with a comms budget. Tunisian government partners always wanted to divert some funds to produce this kind of kitsch patriotic song clips or create ugly mascots.

You might think that Nadia Akacha is quite young, but career civil servants of her generation are the worst in terms of comms. Old regime naïveté, paternalism, and aesthetics are so ingrained in their software that it's become bloody hardware.

Once, a senior official drew this sketch in one the most cringeworthy moments in my career. He wanted it to be the logo for a government-sponsored youth project. Here's the exact reproduction with annotations:

So this is an anthropomorphic map of Tunisia. The face is the flag of Tunisia. The head of course wears the inevitable chechya (a traditional hat). The Cap Bon coastal region represents Tunisia's hand trying to catch young people in the sea, migrating to Italy or Syria.

And instead of the Jerid salt lake in the middle, he wanted an eye. "The eye that sees." That part seemed really important to him and he insisted a lot about this.

Unpopular opinion: In 2021, a state doesn't need a state-owned TV. Abolish Watania 1 & 2 aka TV7! Just replace them with Parliamentary TV - that is if we ever have a functioning parliament again.