Brand Azerbaijan III

For a country that seems to face some challenges with its international reputation, Azerbaijan seems to have mastered the art of employing the domestic media as a tool for bolstering the government's image in the eyes of its own population. As I do have a TV with limited channels in my apartment, I sometimes find myself in a state of quasi-relaxation, staring at the screen, not able to understand a word of Azeri. This can actually be kind of soothing after a long day at work (especially when one of the Turkish soap operas is on) but particularly when various government-produced videos about Azerbaijan show up. Some were directly related to Salvation Day celebrating Heydar Aliyev's return to power in 1993 (picture endless montages of President Aliyev holding children, hosting dignitaries, drilling oil wells etc). Others are more general, featuring well produced shots of newly renovated areas of downtown Baku set to local music, or my favorite which juxtapose older images from the Soviet era with updated ones of independent Azerbaijan. It's interesting how sophisticated the production-values are on many of these videos, when compared to the typical program on TV and makes me wonder where this image-making is emanating from and why it can't be employed more directly in the international sphere?