Mercy Asiedu's 2014 Tigo Advert: The Reason Keypad Phones Are Called Yams

• Ghanaian actor Mercy Asiedu's 2014 advert for telecommunication network AT, formerly Tigo, has gone viral
• This comes on the back of a social media user asking why keypad phones were referred to as 'yam' phones
• Many people of the older generation expressed excitement at seeing the television commercial surfacing again

Kumawood star Mercy Asiedu's 2014 advert for Ghanaian telecommunication network Tigo, now AT, is the reason keypad phones are called yams.

Mercy Asiedu stars in Tigo advert

In the video commercial, Ghanaian actor Harold Amenyah visited the home of actress and media personality Naa Ashorkor for her hand in marriage from her family. The traditional ceremony is known as knocking.

As they were seated on the compound, Mr Amenyah's phone rang and the ringtone sold him out since it was common to keypad phones.

He was embarrassed when Mercy Asiedu, the mother of Naa Ashorkor expressed dissatisfaction with him not owning a smartphone.

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"Kwakye, you have a yam," Mercy Asiedu said.

The full AT advert is below:

In the same old television commercial, Mercy Asiedu insisted that the keypad phone he was using was a yam and that her daughter had a smartphone.

She disgraced him in front of everyone saying that his handsomeness could not be compared to the keypad phone.

"Drop that yam because you cannot use it to ask for my daughter's hand in marriage," Mercy said.

Justifying why Harold needed to drop the yam, she noted that it would not show her daughter's wedding pictures on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly Twitter).

The video of the commercial has gone viral after an X user made a post inquiring why keypad phones were referred to as yams in Ghanaian parlance.

Reactions to Mercy Asiedu's Tigo commercial

Many people in the comment section noted that Gen Zs could not relate to those times when such phones were valuable.

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The old television commercial also ignited nostalgic emotions in the older generation who shared their views in the comments.

Below are the reactions of social media users:

imomentproduction said:

"It you watched his ad as a kid you need to be married with atleast 1 kid 😂. That Bn said who is coming to see my mum "

narrt said:

"Started from when small phones became popular and phone manufacturers competed on who could make the smallest phones. People made fun of bigger phones calling them Gomoa banche because yams from Gomoa are big. Eventually people dropped the Gomoa and just called non-trendy phones yam."

blaeckmonarch said:

"I was asking myself why we've been able to maintain this name. It has come to stay."

thenana316 said:

"One of the greatest ad in Ghana..I laugh enter my wife bedroom and now she has lock the door ..how will I go out to see my side chick."

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banger_boss_official said:

"TORCH 🔦 LIGHT 🔆 AND RADIO 📻😂😂😂😂MUST WE TELL E-LEVY THE STORY???😂😂😂."

lovely_derbbie said:

"They are actually called feature phones. Funny enough, when you search for yam phones on the internet, it is actually displayed 😂."

whois_skepta said:

"Back when phones weren’t expensive 😢😂😂."

readwith_oforiwaah said:

"Gen Z won't know this 😂. I remember this add vividly 😂."

Video of the 1st MOMO advert surfaces

YEN.com.gh also reported that Rita Tetteh, who starred in the first mobile money advert for MTN, received a two-bedroom house.

The beautiful house that had been promised to the elderly woman in 2019 was finally handed over in grand fashion in August 2022.

Rita Tetteh's advert was instrumental in setting the pace for a revolutionary mobile money industry and catapulted MTN's success.

Proofread by Bruce Douglas, senior copy editor at YEN.com.gh

Source: YEN.com.gh