São Paulo – In March, the Beirut-based Brazilian journalist Lú Braga’s blog will start advertising Brazilian-made food products under new formats. The video shows Papo de cozinha and Papo de banheiro (Kitchen talk and Bathroom talk) will feature casual conversations, interspersed with presentations of food products made in Brazil and potential ladies’ room chat topics like perfumes, cosmetics and cell phones.
The talk shows will air on the blog Na Segunda Lú Começa (Lú will begin on Monday), which chronicles the journalist’s daily routine in Arab land. Papo de cozinha season 01 will feature eight episodes, with Lú Braga showcasing the Brazilian chef Alexandre Magno as he cooks international dishes the way they are done in Brazil. Tabbouleh is one of them. Magno will show how the Arab recipe is usually cooked by Brazilians. Lú’s conversations with Magno will be interspersed with promotion of the products being used, including wines, spices etc.
In Papo de banheiro, in turn, Braga will have different guests over for a bathroom chat. They will go run the gamut on female topics, from personal hygiene items to household products or makeup. In both the restroom and kitchen series, Braga and her guests will advertise the clothes they will be wearing.
Lú Braga’s website already features product and service ads, but in isolated fashion. She is spending a season in Brazil to land partnership deals with brands that got in touch with her to get airtime in Arab countries, including the designer Camila Zorzi, who creates outfits for Muslim women, the accessories designer Cris Menezes and the beachwear designer Gabriela Michel. The videos are being shot in Brazil by the journalist, in partnership with production company NBT Action Filmes.
Advertising brands on her blog is the only marketing done by Lú Braga. Within a month, however, she plans on including an online shop in her website, to route visitors to the e-shops of her partner businesses. According to Braga, Arabs say Brazilian products are really cheap right now because of the exchange rate. “But as the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind,” the journalist says.
The blog Na Segunda Lú Começa is up for 11 months now and had 3 million hits so far. Written in Portuguese, it is popular among the Brazilian communities in Arab countries, as well as in other Portuguese-speaking countries. The blog also gets lots of Brazilian visitors, according to its owner.
Lú Braga is a native of São Paulo and has worked as a journalist at radio stations, TV channels and press offices in Brazil and other countries. In Mozambique and the UK, she worked for the Brazilian channel TV Record. Braga specializes in Education and Projects Management, and holds a degree in Social Communication from Fundação Educacional do Município de Assis (Fema).
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
