Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Onions are advised, but not adviced
AFTER the discussion last week about foreign-made ads and how they are insidiously threatening our fragile national identity – not to mention exacerbating some social tensions – it has been a pleasant relief to see some good local advertising from a brand and an ad agency whose roots are deep in South African soil.
Old Mutual has been around for 168 years, and ad agency Draftfcb, although now part of a major international group, has been around for decades in various guises.
Their joint effort for Old Mutual’s new Financial Lifestyle Solutions campaign features real South Africans and their very real aspirations.
They say the marketing insight behind the campaign is that many South Africans do not have much confidence when it comes to making financial decisions. Most people have dreams and aspirations but few have any idea how to realise these.
One of the big problems is that people don’t look ahead, and one of the new TV ads encapsulates that in a lovely way.
Magauta has a nine-year-old daughter who wants to be a professional musician. Old Mutual arranged for her to play with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Not only did her dream come true 15 years early, but it made Magauta realise how glad she was that they had started saving for their daughter’s education early.
It’s an ordinary people story and one of hope, because it is about knowing you can dream and that you can, with the right amount of planning and foresight, make those dreams come true.
The ad is perfectly put together by Miles Goodall of Sweet Spot Content.
Orchids to him, the team at Draftfcb Johannesburg and to Old Mutual. Long may you all continue to produce these type of ads, in South Africa, for South Africa’s people.
Coincidently, the Onion goes to another financial services institution, and its PR company.
I got an e-mail last week from Corporate Image PR consultants, on behalf of Alexander Forbes. It was headed “Alexander Forbes advices cohabiting with cover”. That odd sentence immediately got my interest. Some mistake, surely, thought I.
But no: the headline was the same. And the first sentence read: “Given the increase in unmarried couples living together Alexander Forbes Insurance (AFI) advices that couples ensure that their personal insurance adequately protects their joint assets.”
I often get examples of how South Africa’s English language education system is failing many people. Yet people who cannot use language and do not know the difference between “advises” (correct in this instance) and “advices” (badly incorrect) should not be doing this sort of work. A former editor of mine advised (correct) similarly language-deprived journalists that if they did not know the differences in cases like this, they should go and work for the Post Office. Amen to that.
However, the worrying thing is that at least four people should have seen this: two on client side and two on PR side. No one noticed.Which leaves me wondering whether I might be advised to ignore any advice from Alexander Forbes. Onions all round.