Hazardous Hotel and Scandalous TV
I’ve heard a few stories that would make you think twice about staying at one of the popular Yerevan hotels. Other than personal stuff being stolen from your room while you are out, I recently heard another story which was really freaky.
Imagine you are sleeping at night, and one of the "security" guards walks into your room, stands at the edge of your bed, and stares into your eyes? I will leave it at that. The hotel's name is made of 3 letters.
On another note, almost every hotel in Yerevan is completely booked this summer.
I still think Congress is the most decent with its affordable prices. Plus their outdoor café/restaurant and pool are really nice, especially in this heat. (By the way, apparently it's supposed to reach 40c (104f) in the next few days.)
Golden Tulip Yerevan and Marriott are a little pricey; that dilapidated Erebuni Hotel, with its awesome location, really needs to be rebuilt; Europe Hotel is currently being boycotted, by a group of travel agencies, for false advertising their prices; and Golden Palace is not in the center. Then of course we've got locally owned hotels which are usually not of international standards. Soon the Soviet-era Youth Palace will be torn down to be replaced by a 5-star hotel. Which I need to photograph like mad before it's demolished.
Anyway, so I've logged about a few immoral commercials I have seen on TV, but these 3 or 4 Giani jewelry commercial series are really sad. It started off with a young guy who bought his girlfriend a gold necklace, though he had another lover on the side. The same people were portrayed a little older in the second commercial, and the third one had the lover having nightmares of the guy's girlfriend having the nice Giani necklace and not her. This fourth commercial I saw had the same actors, though I'm not 100% sure if it was actually a Giani commercial. The man is in bed with two girls and is talking on the phone with his lonely clueless wife. Sure they're nice, but non-Christian, "fantasies", but why does the State TV channel have to encourage it by constantly airing it?
Another commercial shows a woman making coffee for her lover, who is laying down in her bed in the next room. The husband comes home early after work and bumps into her wife coming out of the kitchen. She says to her husband, “Here, I made coffee for us”, at which point the lover comes out of the bedroom with only his t-shirt and underwear. I can't even remember what they were advertising, but I'm guessing it was a coffee commercial. But why? What is the purpose? Is there no other way to advertise jewelery and coffee? I don't get it.
On the State H1 TV channel, they have a show called Open Project, and it’s basically a talk show (sort of like Jerry Springer but actually real and not as scandalous.) They recently had a show titled ... "The Person You Love Has a Family ... When you love, you forget about many things: for instance that the person you love has a family and it is impossible to love on demand." HUH???
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
All these construction projects of new roads, buildings and hotels are really really nice ... but we have sooooooooo many social issues that desperately need to be dealt with. I just wish our Church was a little more active with these issues.
Sorry for the depressing log. I'll try to be a little more happier in my next one. :-(
Imagine you are sleeping at night, and one of the "security" guards walks into your room, stands at the edge of your bed, and stares into your eyes? I will leave it at that. The hotel's name is made of 3 letters.
On another note, almost every hotel in Yerevan is completely booked this summer.
I still think Congress is the most decent with its affordable prices. Plus their outdoor café/restaurant and pool are really nice, especially in this heat. (By the way, apparently it's supposed to reach 40c (104f) in the next few days.)
Golden Tulip Yerevan and Marriott are a little pricey; that dilapidated Erebuni Hotel, with its awesome location, really needs to be rebuilt; Europe Hotel is currently being boycotted, by a group of travel agencies, for false advertising their prices; and Golden Palace is not in the center. Then of course we've got locally owned hotels which are usually not of international standards. Soon the Soviet-era Youth Palace will be torn down to be replaced by a 5-star hotel. Which I need to photograph like mad before it's demolished.
Anyway, so I've logged about a few immoral commercials I have seen on TV, but these 3 or 4 Giani jewelry commercial series are really sad. It started off with a young guy who bought his girlfriend a gold necklace, though he had another lover on the side. The same people were portrayed a little older in the second commercial, and the third one had the lover having nightmares of the guy's girlfriend having the nice Giani necklace and not her. This fourth commercial I saw had the same actors, though I'm not 100% sure if it was actually a Giani commercial. The man is in bed with two girls and is talking on the phone with his lonely clueless wife. Sure they're nice, but non-Christian, "fantasies", but why does the State TV channel have to encourage it by constantly airing it?
Another commercial shows a woman making coffee for her lover, who is laying down in her bed in the next room. The husband comes home early after work and bumps into her wife coming out of the kitchen. She says to her husband, “Here, I made coffee for us”, at which point the lover comes out of the bedroom with only his t-shirt and underwear. I can't even remember what they were advertising, but I'm guessing it was a coffee commercial. But why? What is the purpose? Is there no other way to advertise jewelery and coffee? I don't get it.
On the State H1 TV channel, they have a show called Open Project, and it’s basically a talk show (sort of like Jerry Springer but actually real and not as scandalous.) They recently had a show titled ... "The Person You Love Has a Family ... When you love, you forget about many things: for instance that the person you love has a family and it is impossible to love on demand." HUH???
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
All these construction projects of new roads, buildings and hotels are really really nice ... but we have sooooooooo many social issues that desperately need to be dealt with. I just wish our Church was a little more active with these issues.
Sorry for the depressing log. I'll try to be a little more happier in my next one. :-(
posted by Der Hova at 1:11 AM
16 Comments:
Giani ad does my head in too . I hate that it glorifies cheating on your wife etc. Then again..much of the same and worse happens here in britain on tv.
What I do think they have got wrong though, is advertising what seems to be a high class, luxurious jewellery, using a commerical thats more suited to a cheesy nightclub for students..silly marketing ideas..
As for open project.. I have to admit that I am addicted:)
Another interesting post from Der Hova and I'm glad commenting is now possible Anyway, I guess part of it is knowing your potential client base. i.e. those able to afford to buy expensive jewelry are more likely to have their egos boosted with this depiction of lifestyle of the "rich and famous" in Armenia. This is after all, the lifestyle that money buys.
As for Harmick's comments, I haven't seen the adverts but I doubt the UK is as bad ALTHOUGH even it is, there's one thing that makes it different. That is, the Advertising Standards Authority where you can make complaints and have adverts lifted off the air if they offend.
Basically, a lot in Armenia compared to the West has more to do with whether legislation and standards are in place and if they are, whether they function. Actually, I think this is the main challenge facing Armenia today.
Freaky stories about hotels. No wonder hiring apartments is the preferred choice of many tourists.
I'm impressed you people can tolerate watching Armenian TV that much!
As for the hotel guard thing, that really could happen anywhere, the guy is clearly disturbed. The real question is, how did the hotel handle it (ie. did they fire him on the spot).
The construction is great, but I am tired of the dust already! I can't ever see an end in sight. Meanwhile, sure social is needed, but jobs, jobs, jobs... the real need! (and yes, it's the govt. that is obstructing those)
Last night there was a commercial on Armenian television for the World Armenian Billiard Federation, encouraging children to come join. They referred to billiards as a beautiful sport. The advertisement said that children can come and play for free and to visit their site at: http://www.billiard-armenia.am/
Heyyyy.. why r u stealing my ANI HOTAL intrusion in the rooms story.. lol log idea stealer!! :)
No but really, that happened to 4 people I know in the past 3 weeks. So if you're going to stay at Ani, put your luggage or a couch behind the door at night.
And FYI, the guard was NOT fired.. in fact the hotel staff/managers were defending the guard's right to check the room. HUH???
If the guard hasn't been fired I'd suggest a petition to get the hotel to sort out their act. It's quite unacceptable.
As for Raffi's comment about jobs, I think that's the only sustainable solution to social problems in Armenia. It's already concerning for me to see a psychology of dependency become even more entrenched.
funny thought just popped into my head...
remember the animated Jermuk commercial with the deer getting shot..that was lifted off the air due to offense and a censored version shown.. I hated that ad.
I agree, the A.S.A or something of the sort is needed, It does anger me that ads for strip clubs are shown on the state tv, without taking into account that its still 4pm elsewhere in the world and little kids are watching.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Harmick, a while back I had mentioned how, after numerous complaints, the Jermuk commercial had been edited down to get rid of the shooting part.
There's a taxi commercial that shows a married guy who is out on a date with "one" of his lovers. He calls a travel agent to order tickets for a vacation he wants to take with his lover. While on this date his wife calls on his cell phone and asks where their child is. He leaves his date and picks up his child and brings her home, but when the wife opens the door the first thing she says is, "This is not our child" and the child says, "Daddy, this is not my mother."
A while back this commercial was constantly aired on Yerkir Media, but was pulled off the air after numerous complaints. The sad part is that the guys at Yerkir claimed that only spyurqahays had called to complain about that commercial.
I have already sent an email to H1 regarding the Giani commercials, and I wouldn't be suprirsed if others have complained as well, but Giani sponsors numerous programs on a few of the TV channels, and therefore I doubt those commercials will be taken off the air anytime soon. $$$$$
I know that someone has raised the issue of the guard with the owners of Ani Hotel. They deny that such things are possible because guards shouldn't be able to get in locked doors at the hotel. If this is not the case, more details should be logged so that nothing is swept under the carpet.
I'm sure the American-Armenian owners of Hotel Ani would be quite disturbed to hear this... they need to know about this guard business.
According to the email I've seen, the owners say they don't believe this story is true because they think it is impossible for a guard to open a door in the hotel if it's locked from the inside. However, they have also passed on the details to the hotel management.
Every other day I am hearing more and more stories about this same thing happening over and over again at ANI Hotel ... guards coming into the rooms in the middle of the night.
So how safe is it for a female, or two, to be alone in a room when some freak like this enters in the middle of the night?
One of the owners knows about this problem and this log and they are looking into it. I'm sure if it is a real problem, it will be taken care of in the days to follow.
So it had to come to this point when I logged about it with my pic here? (I'm not usually paranoid, but some Armenians are crazy at times, and will seek revenge if someone offends them.)
I know for a fact that complaints have been brought, not onto to the hotel staff, but to the people up there.
Anyhow, this is not 10 years ago, ANI has competition now, with places such as Congress Hotel and Europe Hotel, plus the 5-star ones.
Hehe - you are definitely being paranoid Der Hova. But as you said, not only is there competition, but these types of stories circulate in Armenian circles faster than wildfire (as we all know) and last much longer than any story which is good PR... so they best roll some heads quickly!
Post a Comment
<< Home