It is quite increasingly becoming the case where a week in review does not begin with trending headlines around major sports events. Finale matches in both cricket and football have been trending in the week gone. The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 saw the Royal Challengers Bangalore take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad, with the latter winning the match by eight runs. The match trended with #RCBvSRH, reminding once again the strong South Asia Diaspora in the region.
The region thrives on football. The Champions League final (#UCLfinal) saw the teams from Madrid, Real and Atletico, play out a thriller that needed penalty shootouts to decide the winner. Not surprisingly, it was Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo who scored the decisive penalty to make Real Madrid the Champions of Europe. Also, not surprisingly the match was highly discussed on social platforms.
Staying with sports, another news trending this week has been BMW’s ad campaign and the associated disappointment around its messaging. The ad shows soccer players from UAE cut short singing the National Anthem only to get a chance to ride a BMW. Citizens from all over the UAE took to social media to show their frustration on the ad. The #ايقاف_اعلان_bmw continues to trend over the past two days which translates to #Suspend_BMW_ads. However, Arno Husselmann, the General manager of BMW Abu Dhabi, has assured fans that not only was the ad removed from all platforms, but was also being modified to make sure that the right message is portrayed. Advertising boo-boos not uncommon; the fact that it was coming from BMW though was highly surprising.
Apart from the sports news, Pakistan Prime Minister, who was earlier in the trending list because of his link to the Panama Papers, once again made it to the trending list in the Middle East. This time however it was because of the PM undergoing a heart surgery in London. Well-wishers from across Middle East tweeted #BestWishesToMyPM to show their support.
Moving onto some entertainment news; the trailer for the upcoming Bollywood action-adventure film, Dishoom, starring John Abraham, Varun Dhawan, Jacqueline Fernandez and Saqib Saleem was released yesterday and was seen trending on Twitter with #DishoomTrailer.
Finally, the excitement of Ramadan is taking over. Topics around the Holy Month has been all over Twitter as it has been one of the most trending topics discussed this week. While some showed their excitement about the Month and its blessings, there were others who were also excited about the Ramadan work timings in Gulf countries. It is also nice to see that the costs of essential items required in the month have been reduced. Ramadan is also considered the Super Bowl of the region, so it will be fun seeing some interesting ad campaigns in the coming month.
On behalf of team AM, here is wishing all our readers Ramadan Kareem, and until next time, Good Bye.
