I want my MTV... Turkey?

Yes!

This week is all-Turkey, all-the-time here at bookofjoe, what with Tuesday's shout-out to my new best friends in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Adana, Gazientep and all the rest.

I just happened on Eric Pfanner's New York Times story from this past Monday (December 11, 2006) about the debut in October of this year of MTV Turkey, "the latest of more than 50 MTV channels worldwide, beaming music videos and other entertainment to cable and satellite viewers across the country."

The new channel adds Turkish-language TV hosts and local musical acts into the international mix.

Here's the Times article.

Who Needs Europe, Anyway? Turkey Has Its Very Own MTV

Turkey’s relationship with the European Union, and with the wider Western world, may be fraught with uncertainties. But now, Turkey has MTV.

In October, MTV Turkey became the latest of more than 50 MTV channels worldwide, beaming music videos and other entertainment to cable and satellite viewers across the country. While Turks had long been able to tune in to MTV Europe, an English-language channel, MTV Turkey adds local musical acts and Turkish-language television hosts into the international mix.

Pop stars move in different circles from, say, politicians or popes, so it is surely only a coincidence that in the six weeks or so since the channel began, the volume of news, of a different sort, about Turkey has been rising. Opposition to Ankara’s bid to join the European Union is growing in some European capitals, and foreign ministers were expected to discuss that in Brussels on Monday.

But pop culture, particularly through advertising, has a way of reflecting broad political and social trends. The ad agency Leo Burnett Turkey, created a campaign for MTV Turkey that highlights the sometimes bittersweet relationship between Turkey and the West.

One spot, now appearing on television and in movie theaters in Turkey, riffs on the story of Aladdin, featuring a young waiter at a Turkish resort and a British female tourist.

The waiter spots the tourist across the hotel terrace, and starts to fantasize that she is falling for him. Returning to his cramped room, he rubs his lamp, à la Aladdin; instead of a genie, the British tourist appears, whispering that she loves him.

Things heat up further when the waiter hands her a love note alongside breakfast, asking her to go dancing with him that night. The imagined evening culminates in her bedroom, with the tourist suggestively lowering her top to reveal an MTV tattoo. To her astonishment and delight, the waiter reveals a similar tattoo on his chest.

The ad cuts to a picture of a newspaper rack with a tabloid whose banner headline reads, “MTV is in Turkey, Turkey is in MTV.”

“The idea was to show how cultures can mix in Turkey,” said Yasar Akbas, creative director for Leo Burnett Turkey. “It’s a place where there are many surprises inside.”

MTV Turkey said that it was too early to determine how many viewers were tuning in to the new channel, adding that it could potentially reach 8 million households via satellite and 1.3 million via cable.

A Web site linked to it is attracting 1.5 million hits a day, MTV Turkey said. MTV, part of the Viacom media conglomerate, is paying a lot of attention to the Internet, as social networking sites and those with user-generated content, like MySpace and YouTube, have lured away MTV viewers in some markets.

Like several non-English services started by MTV, the Turkish channel runs under a license with a local partner, in this case Multi-Channel Developers, a Turkish company.

Neither Leo Burnett, part of the Publicis Groupe, nor MTV Turkey would say how much was being spent on the ad campaign.

Turks might be unhappy with the current wrangling over the European Union bid, Mr. Akbas said, but they are unlikely to spurn the West.

“Some people in Europe may not think Turkey can adapt to the European Union,” he said, “but this is a country where the East kisses the West.”