LAST week’s conviction of dancehall star Buju Banton on drug and gun charges, which could see him facing a minimum of 15 years in jail, tugged at the heartstrings of most of the country who had hoped that he would avoid a guilty verdict.

For some time now Corporate Jamaica has embarked on lucrative sponsorship deals with dancehall stars in order to sell their wares to the public which regards dancehall as the music of the people and the pre-eminent cultural art form, regardless of the fact that its purveyors espouse profanity, lewd sexual conduct and encourage criminal braggadocio. Championing family values and the attainment of a sound education as well as becoming an upstanding citizen seems at odds with backing dancehall stars whose message and behaviour run counter to these homilies.

In an effort to rebrand and reposition the telecoms giant LIME Jamaica, its chairman and head of marketing, Chris Dehring, has used Jamaica’s leading dancehall stars as ambassadors of the brand. No doubt the thinking is to make up ground on the ever increasing gap between itself and its main rival Digicel which has been in Jamaica for about 10 years and is now the market leader in the mobile phone business. By garnering mass appeal with the dancehall stars as its champions, the strategy was to create a hip and uniquely indigenous brand that would get LIME back in the game. A strategy that some say has merit. However, the nexus between dancehall and criminality is fraught with difficulties for any of Jamaica’s leading brands.

When Buju Banton was convicted, many immediately pointed out that it was a high-risk strategy for LIME to be so vociferous in its support of his concert in Miami. However, it must not be forgotten that the mobile TV campaign was a hit and many mobile TV phones were sold. This may well vindicate Dehring’s pursuit of that strategy. If Buju Banton had been acquitted, Dehring would have been hailed as a marketing genius, the man to bring LIME back from the dead. He still may well be, if the dancehall icon wins his appeal. The fact is that dancehall is inextricably linked with Jamaican popular culture and its stars are hailed as gods of the arena, feted and celebrated by the masses and the cognoscenti alike.

It must be said that not all dancehall acts are predisposed to unbecoming behaviour, but many are far from paragons of virtue. Some say they are the denizens of the true heart of Jamaican society. But this makes it a precarious tightrope for any reputable company to walk. One cannot project an image of upstanding citizenship and law-abiding civility and then embrace arbiters of crime and decadence. This sees one dancing with the devil–literally.

The latest edition of The Economist homes in on this point. In an article entitled “Bad news for Buju Banton”, the author writes: “In Mr Myrie’s native Jamaica, he was hailed by most as a martyred “son of the soil,” unfairly persecuted by a foreign power. His popularity has been buttressed by the marketing efforts of high-profile businesses. Just last month, Landline Internet Mobile and Entertainment (LIME), the Caribbean subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, a British telecommunications company, centred a major promotion on its exclusive local television rights to Mr Myrie’s “Before the Dawn” concert, staged in Miami while he was out on prison bail.”

“However, his conviction (Buju Banton) should refocus attention on the connection between Jamaica’s musicians and its dire crime problem — the country’s homicide rate, fuelled in part by the drug trade, is among the highest in the world. Jamaican song lyrics are often violent and raunchy, and too many prominent entertainers have been charged with serious offences from murder down. A key question is how the corporate sponsors of controversial artists will respond to the news.”

Back in 2008, Red Stripe’s senior management team took the decision to stop sponsoring and supporting negative dancehall which glorifies violence, drugs and lewd behaviour. It pulled the plug on Reggae Sumfest and Sting, much to the chagrin of household-named dancehall stars like Beenie Man.

The award-winning journalist Ian Boyne, addressing this matter, wrote: “Red Stripe has decided that it is about time that it should back up its rhetoric of peace and good citizenship with concrete action. If the principals of Wray & Nephew, Wisynco and Lascelles are really serious about promoting civility, decency and in giving substance to their after-dinner speeches, then they should do likewise and withdraw sponsorships from events which feature and profit from artistes who unapologetically and defiantly promote violence, misogyny and bigotry in their music.

“Red Stripe has done the only correct and decent thing: Withdraw sponsorship from events like Sumfest and Sting once they insist on having certain artistes. The moneyed promoters of these shows don’t care one damn about what the artistes say on stage once they pocket patrons’money and can smile all the way to the bank. “They feel no way about giving speeches decrying the lack of proper values in the society or the galloping murder rate. They will even contribute money to the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica’s (PSOJ’s) Crime Stop programme or pay to support lofty, nice-sounding public service announcements. Yet, they are profiting from propping up artistes who make their living glorifying the death of poor, oppressed people in our inner cities.”

Red Stripe has returned to sponsoring and supporting dancehall events and stars but is now insisting that the artistes clean up their act.

In the case of both LIME and Red Stripe, they are facing foreboding competition and the pressure to deliver is immense. Their respective management teams are not per se champions of unbecoming behaviour but are looking to every marketing advantage to report stellar profits to their overseas masters, the behemoths Cable& Wireless and Diageo. Last year LIME reported a loss of J$3.4 billion for the year. For the first quarter of this year, LIME has already registered a loss of J$1.3 billion, 270 per cent greater than the J$351 million posted for the same period last year. Mind you, LIME’s aggressive marketing campaign and the launch of its mobile TV offering took place in that same quarter. Dehring has vowed to turn things around and is renowned for employing novel marketing techniques. He remains resolute in pursuing a more uptempo marketing programme to win back market share from what he calls the “Red Band”–namely Digicel and Claro, who use red prominently in their corporate logos. The jury is still out.

Red Stripe has also seen better times. It now has to contend with a contracting market, fierce competition and a younger demographic turning away from beer. In the last three months of 2010, its profits after tax came in at J$205 million — a fall of 41 per cent on the same period in the previous year. Tellingly, marketing costs jumped 74 per cent to J$464.8 million, which led to a reduced trading profit of J$326.9 million. The pressure continues for both companies who are currently not paying out dividends.