No getting off the ad sector’s Heyneke Highway to nowhere
RUGBY and advertising have one vexing thing in common: a seeming inability to tackle the complexities of transformation.
While one minor political party was this week trying to get a court to confiscate the passports of the Springbok rugby squad because of a paucity of black players, the ad industry was again grappling with the use of vernacular language in its output and why there are so few black leaders of big agencies.
Both these issues are the equivalent of the sector’s Groundhog Day. In spite of a charter and I think another one, and probably one after that, as well as protestations of concern and commitment over the years, little has really changed in the ad industry in years.
There might be a little less happy powder in studios and shorter client lunches, but, truth be told, it’s on the same trajectory as Heyneke Highway — flat with much flapping.
A quick look at the top 20 ad agencies in South Africa will show either a steady exit of black leadership over recent years or an entrenchment of the white status quo.
In fairness to the current agency leaders (blanco), most of them are acutely aware of the issue, but complain that the sector, with low margins and uncompetitive pay scales, makes it hard to attract the right talent.
But many black agency leaders have told me on the QT that they have battled to find a meaningful space in the industry. The phrase “old boys’ club” is still bandied about. When black agency talent strike out alone, they find it hard to break into the commercial client space and are forced to default to state business, hardly a bastion of creativity.
In a Facebook missive from the safety of the US, a relocated creative director had a go at the awards component of the industry, saying black-language advertising, apart from a single category in radio, was insufficiently recognised. The general industry response was a lame “We’re looking at it”.
Given that most of the consumers of ad-agency work are majority black, one would think changing this dynamic would be top of the list. I’m not feeling a great sense of urgency.
Another frustrated black media player suggested brands and their agencies, apart from addressing the language deficit, might also rethink an overarching and clichéd commercials theme of unleashing singing and dancing black people every time they are introduced to a new product.
He said that where he came from, spontaneous consumer joy when opening a new tin of coffee tended to be trumped these days by how much more it cost.
The Boks will no doubt make it to the end zones of the Rugby World Cup, and the advertising wheel will continue to turn, but, in both cases, will leave a little sour residue.
Maggs is a broadcaster and writer and edits the RedZone marketing and brand website at financialmail.co.za/redzone
In spite of . . . protestations of concern and commitment over the years, little has really changed