Chavez Inspires Million-Dollar Insult
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has never been afraid to heap insults on his rivals, from dismissing George W. Bush as "the devil" to labeling former Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist." So it must be all the more galling for the self-styled martyr to learn that his bitter enemy King Juan Carlos of Spain may have generated some $2 million in ringtone sales, simply on the basis of one near-legendary riposte: "Why don't you shut up?"
The king's million-dollar insult was directed at Chavez at the Ibero-American summit in Chile last week, and since then entrepreneurs have been cashing in on its popularity. The Spanish phrase " por que no te callas?" is now a ringtone, a Facebook group, a YouTube clip and will eventually become a Web site. Type in www.porquenotecallas.com into any Web browser and you will end up at an eBay auction offering the domain name for over 10,000 euros ($14,657.65).
According to British newspaper The Guardian, an estimated 500,000 people have already downloaded the ringtone, which represents some 1.5 million euros ($2.2 million) in sales.
Political ringtones are big business, especially with mobile phones being the primary communication tool for the key youth demographics. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama offers a variety of ringtones on his campaign Web site, from "End The War" to the less catchy "On Healthcare." And back in June, a British ringtone service offered its services to British premier Gordon Brown, "to win over politically apathetic 18-24-year-olds."
But as with Chavez and his royal foe, the most infamous political ringtones are unplanned and controversial. In 2005, recordings of alleged vote-rigging conversations between Filipino President Gloria Arroyo and an electoral official she supposedly addressed as "Garci" brought mobile phones to life across the Philippines.
"They are quite common in a few markets," said Jonathan Arber, analyst with Ovum Research, citing emerging markets in Asia. He estimated the global ringtone market at over $5 billion in 2007, but said that growth would tail off after 2009, as services such as mobile music eroded sales at ringtone-specific businesses.
No doubt Chavez would dismiss the whole enterprise as "the road to hell"--his metaphor for capitalism--but perhaps he may be less displeased if one of his insults ever tops the million-dollar mark.
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