An ad packed with home truths and made to broaden horizons

WHAT is the most important gift you can give to your children? I know there is that old classic about the best thing a father can give to his children is to love their mother, but in this day and age marriage is not always the till-death-us-do-part or even man and woman institution it used to be.

But what every parent can do – whether single, divorced or widowed – to help expand the horizons of their children is to take them travelling.

Forgive me for trying to turn this into the Week of Clichés, but when it comes to small human beings, travel broadens the mind.

I read somewhere once that the mere fact of changing a child’s environment – and particularly in a holiday vein, when everyone is more relaxed – helps a young brain grow neuronal connections at a faster than normal rate.

I used to be astounded by how much our children – when they were small, under the age of 3 – grew during even the short time away.

I am not talking physically: the mental acceleration was noticeable. Not only was there more curiosity, but more verbalising, and concepts got sharper.

That’s why I so like the latest SA Tourism ads for its #TourismForAll campaign, which kicks off Tourism Month in September.

We see a young mum – she tells us she is a single parent – taking her girls on their first real family holiday.

You can see it in everyone’s face and in everyone’s eyes – they love spending time together and they love sharing new experiences.

That sense of anticipation in packing the vehicle (and this one is a long-distance touring taxi, in a nod to SA Tourism’s goal of bringing tourism to more people), in the road trip, in reaching the journey’s end, in seeing the beauty of our amazing country at first hand… they’re all there in this simple yet heart-warming commercial.

And, so SA Tourism tells me, this is a true story about a real family – just like others in the series.

Reality advertising is effective because it involves real people, the sort of real people the target market can associate with and say: Hey, I can see myself doing that.

So, it gets my Orchid this week. Well done, SA Tourism.

A disclosure: I am writing this on a trip to the Free State arranged by SA Tourism (its focus province for Tourism Month).

But I didn’t get a backhander to write this.

Local tourism offers just as much as overseas travel and won’t leave you platsak, either, so it should be a no-brainer.

Tourism, if it is marketed correctly, is a great renewable resource and job creator, so any efforts to stimulate the industry have my full backing. This kind of marketing works. Another kind of marketing that works is the clever tagline that subtly twists a well-known phrase in branding in pursuing its own marketing goals.

Sometimes it falls flat because it tries to be too clever and punny, but sometimes it just hits the sweet spot.

One that has caught my eye is on posters advertising the Festival of Motoring, which is to happen soon at the Kyalami race track.

It will be a big deal for petrolheads and for ordinary people seeking a bit of fun and entertainment, and it confirms the value of the hundreds of millions of rand spent in re-vamping the track and making it into a world-class multifunction venue.

The line on the poster was simple: Grand Fest Auto. Playing on the name of the hugely popular PlayStation game Grand Theft Auto, which takes its title from the offence in the US criminal justice code, Grand Fest Auto just works.

You know you’re going to get powerful, fast cars, just like you do in the game.

But these are going to be real and you can get to see, and hear, them.

If you’re prepared to hand over some wads of cash, you can even get to roar around the circuit in them – as a passenger, of course. Simple but effective. A Grand Orchid Auto for the Festival of Motoring and the agency, The Creative Counsel.