THE BARBADOS MANUFACTURERS’ Association (BMA) is pushing ahead with its drive to get Barbadians to buy more local goods with the launch of the I Am Bajan campaign.
Executive director Bobbi McKay said on Friday that the intensive advertising and marketing campaign would include product decals featuring the country’s national colours.
Speaking during a Press briefing at the BMA’s Harbour Road, St Michael office, she said the initiative was intended to engender a sense of national pride while encouraging Barbadians to rally around the manufacturing sector.
“There’s an opportunity for everyone to participate. This is actually a campaign that the manufacturers are paying for.
“Each company so far has paid for the production and payment [of their ads],” she said, noting that the BMA had facilitated the process and “helped to pull it all together”.
McKay noted that although Barbadians knew that “buying Bajan” helped to keep people employed, the BMA saw a need to make to “connect” and make the concept more personal.
She added that manufacturing had the potential to lift Barbados out of recession.
“We have a certain quality of life here . . . . We need to keep that quality of life. We need to keep Barbadians occupied. We need to keep them in jobs where they’re making good money so we can all enjoy it together.
“This is a national campaign, not a BMA campaign. This is for Barbados. This is for our economy,” she stressed. (NB)
