Gubbi of Arabia: Expat Life in Dubai

About 2 weeks ago, I changed my Blackberry cover. The offensively bright pink one I had used for over a year was getting a little ragged, so I took it off and put on a new neon orange cover. (Puh-leez, I still needed something obnox.)

Over the course of those 2 weeks, no fewer than a dozen people (including colleagues, friends, and this morning, my Filipina cleaning lady) have commented on the switch - usually something along the lines of “No more pink phone?! What happened?!”

Now, call me crazy, but the color of my BB is not exactly something I would expect people to … notice. I mean, my friends (and my cleaning lady?), okay maybe. But busy partners at a consulting firm who work 100-hour weeks and regularly forget the names of their own children? They usually have bigger things on their minds.

So this got me thinking about the genesis of the pink case, which was the 7 months I spent working in Saudi Arabia last year. Since I have to wear a black abaya when I’m in Saudi, I told people, I was subverting the system by adding color everywhere else. I used to fly to Riyadh every week sporting a pink suitcase, pink BB, pink iPod, pink wallet, pink nail polish, etc. - Legally Blonde meets Lawrence of Arabia meets Up in the Air. My typical shtick was something along the lines of “they can make me dress in black, but they can’t make me accessorize in black!”

And now, given people’s apparent shock at my newly non-pink phone, I’ve realized: holy crap, I successfully conducted a “Gubbi=Pink” personal branding campaign! To the extent that people are actually shocked when I deviate from that image!

I think the real question is, can I now turn over a new leaf and launch a “Gubbi=Very Brilliant” or “Gubbi=Someone We Should Pay More” rebranding campaign? I just need to figure out how to communicate those messages via accessories… 

[Editor’s Note: The impact of the “Gubbi=Pink” branding campaign upon my professional life remains unclear.]