Former and current Liberian presidential candidate George Weah appeared naked in a Roberts Noir perfume commercial in 1996. (Hat tip to Taa.) This has just come to light in Liberia, and does not bode well for Weah’s political ambitions. For reasons that I don’t completely understand, Liberians get incredibly worked up over acts of perceived indecency. (The New Democrat has a highly amusing synopsis of the advertisement.)
The Analyst quotes the principal of a Pentecostal high school with this priceless reaction:
“If the Congress for Democratic Change…can justify George Weah’s butt naked video on the international information highway on some constitutional right, then Liberians’ must be prepared, God forbade, under a CDC rule, to give audience to the legality and normalness of murder and even cannibalism.”
And here’s a reaction from a Liberian businessman:
“Should Liberians rest assured that under a CDC political leadership, Liberians will be free to perform in nudity as Weah as done in the video and the likes of [Weah's spokesman] will be providing advocacy and encouragement for the society to endorse such practices?”
yet the great general butt naked is something of a hero….
True. But do you know what I mean, about people tending to get worked up over this kind of stuff? Do you know if there have been any anthropological studies on this? My hunch, in fact, is that it is a post-conflict phenomena.
About Weah’s ad for “Roberts Noire”. I am certain that half the critics have not seen the ad. I lived in Italy when Weah shot this ad in 1996. He was a soccer player for AC Milan then. The ad is an art form in which Weah walked past a few female admirers who then imagined that he was naked. That sort of acting happens daily in movies–PG rated or not. He was not nude, the director created an illusion of nudity thus the two things differ. In fact the ad was so non controversial that it ran at all times on Italian national television and that included prime-time when most families were in front of their TV sets.
To call Weah a pornographer is like saying Denzel Washington killed a cop in a movie so he needs to be trial in real life for what transpired in the movie. Trust me folks, I am no Weah supporter, but to hold this against him amounts to a red hearing in which people are elevating ignorance to a whole new and laughable level. In fact, I doubt his critics know anything about critical analysis. History must be read in context; i.e, in the context of the time and place in which said history occurred.
Ace, thanks for this comment. I agree that, in my opinion, the ad does not amount to pornography. But Liberians have more conservative standards for this kind of stuff. You seem to imply that people criticizing him are his political opponents. Normally I would agree. But in this case, my sense is that Weah supporters are upset about this ad as well.