Friday, April 29, 2011

The Royal Wedding...not such a big deal over here

I keep seeing people's facebook statuses about their love/hate of all the royal wedding coverage, and each time I have to remind myself that Will and Kate's big day is coming up!

Well...technically it's already started...but bear with me.

Like Easter and Christmas, this holiday has escaped the marketing minds of Saudi advertisers. I understand the lack of elves and bunnies dancing across my television screen, but why haven't I seen more of that Welsh mug grinning at me?

I'm not Royalist, though, like most American teenage girls, I went through a phase in middle school. I'm still planning to watch the coverage on Dubai One (all 5 hours of it. Take that, E!) just out of pure curiosity. Plus I don't have to work today since it's the Saudi day of worship and we have no car so...what else is there to do?!

With the exception of the occasional commercial, I have seen nothing about this wedding at. all. I have had no hint of what The Dress will look like, I only just saw a shot of The Ring a minute ago on an ad for the coverage, and I just got the run down of the wedding party by reading a friend's facebook link. Nope, it appears that Saudis couldn't care less about this Royal Hoop-la.

There could be a few reasons for this:

1. All the coverage could be on the Arabic channels, and my head hurts when I try to watch those, so I don't do it often.
2. Saudis have their own royal family (with a similar gene pool compared to the Brits), so what do they care what Kate Middleton is wearing!?
3. The clerics that control television here probably frown on all the Royal worship, so the expats like me are left with a few hours on a UAE channel to get their fix.
4. The coverage is probably on the other satellite channels that you have to pay for, and the Mister and I are too cheap to pay for more than the 4 English channels we get for free.

Either way, I'm excited for the wedding today. Just like Christmas and Easter, the lack of media overload has really helped to make today a special treat.

Vicariously yours,


4 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's not a big deal in America either. You see the occasional post but it's buried at the bottom of the headlines. Seriously, you hear a lot of Americans talking about it but no coverage of it either. You have to hit up The Sun or The Guardian's entertainment blog if you want wedding details. I mean, even Al Jazeera has a wedding post at the bottom of the headlines.

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  2. JJ, what do you mean it's not a big deal?? All 3 networks had coverage, Fox news and CNN have been All Wedding. At work, it's all we've talked about today. And since I was up at 4:30 getting ready for work anyway, I watched it- almost made myself late for work to see the last bit at the Abbey. On another note, Amber, why don't you have a car?

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  3. I will say it was a big deal...I DVR'ed and watched it when I got up and was getting ready for work at 7. I am a nerd and was super excited. I mean ELTON JOHN WAS THERE!

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  4. It wasn't a big deal until the wedding day. Then it blew up. Prior to the wedding day, you had to hit the entertainment blogs to get details.

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