Nando’s clucks as Zuma giggles
There is even a cameo appearance by someone who looks just like (from the shoulders down) Public Protector Thuli Madonsela.
She slaps Zuma down when he tries to grab a chicken wing, telling him, “You’ve already had too much”.
It’s a little light relief and, unlike some of the other Nando’s ads, which focused more on getting a laugh than punting a product, this reminds us that we should be on the lookout for the wings special from August 17.
So Orchids to Nando’s, agency M&C Saatchi Abel and to Dean Blumberg of Bouffant Films for making it come alive.
As regular readers of this column know, nothing infuriates me more than a public relations person who has no clue about the media he or she is dealing with. One of my biggest bugbears is the widespread lack of understanding of the deadlines all media work to.
So I was astounded last week when a PR pitch landed in my e-mail box promoting an interview assessing the merits of the election advertising of the parties in the local government elections.
The pitch from Lydia Ntleru, account manager of Riverbed Advertising, read: “Monalisa Zwambila, MD of the RIVERBED integrated agency, maintains that with most of us being bombarded by branding and advertising across all media platforms, the difference between ‘pay-off ’ and party philosophy is becoming increasingly blurred – and it’s worth understand- ing the ‘story’ that’s actually driving your vote on Wednesday.”
Why was I astounded? Because the e-mail arrived at 12.19pm on Tuesday, the day before the elections. Anyone with the vaguest understanding of the news media would know that the chances of someone following this up, when the advertising campaigns had only a few hours left to run, were minimal.
There was too much real news on the go by then and all the media outlets would have been focusing on that rather than on soft analysis.
This story should have been pitched at least a week earlier.
If you don’t understand how we work, don’t bother us, Ms Ntleru and Riverbed.
You get an Onion for not doing your homework.