Digicel, the Irish owned tele-communications giant continues to shoot itself in the foot. The latest faux pas being Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Brewer's false declaration of successfully negotiating sponsorship of a number of Carnival events.

Already burdened by the negative publicity of their sponsorship of the West Indies cricket team and the fallout therefrom, Digicel's marketing strategy continues to baffle. Their local advertisement campaign has been nauseous and foppish, comparing unfavourably to that of TSTT (Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago).

Chairman of NCC, Kenny de Silva immediately denied the CEO's quoted pronouncement clarifying as "premature" any statement that Digicel has secured exclusive rights for Calypso Fiesta (the national calypso semi-final) or the Road March competition. "The statement attributed to Mr Brewer came as quite a surprise to the NCC (National Carnival Commission)," de Silva said.

Mr de Silva revealed the Carnival body has "held talks with a number of potential sponsors and Digicel was among those bidding for particular contracts."
Mobile technology rival TSTT is already a sponsor of the International Soca Monarch and Groovy Soca Monarch competitions and is supplying telecommunication solutions to the NCC for Carnival. The latter is not surprising as Digicel, through no fault of theirs are not able to begin communications services until April this year -two months after Carnival.

To date Digicel's sole success is a promotional contract with leading soca singer Destra Garcia. but her ability to move mobile phones off the shelves is still to be tested.