Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Eish Gogo! We lost the plot somewhere
Ad industry hasn’t done enough to help build bridges between races
IMAGINE this: a bumbling fool of a white man, with a ponytail and cowboy boots, who thinks that “Hello, Grandma” is the correct way to address the “simple local” sitting beside the road selling tin windmills. And how the black man is not simple, but sophisticated – and he saves the day when the keys are locked in the car.
Could you run an ad on those lines on national TV in South Africa today? I don’t think so.
White people would feel threatened, angry and that they were being made “victims” again. Black people would get equally angry about the patronising tone, about the “Uncle Tom” nature of the initial obsequiousness.
When the ad originally appeared, in the 1990s, many were the voices of white outrage. But they quickly dissipated as people realised they could laugh at themselves. Not many people laugh at anything these days.
Somewhere along the yellow brick road of advertising – between the time Vodacom’s “Yebo Gogo” series became one of the best-known campaigns in our advertising history and now – the “Rainbow Nation” lost its way.
And those in the ad business may not like to hear it, but they are partly to blame.
Advertising is more than just selling widgets, although that is its strict function in the business lexicon. It is also a powerful tool for that hackneyed concept of nationbuilding.
Muzi Kuzwayo, adman, author and commentator, points to the US as an example of the power of marketing communication to mould a nation.
He says the country was far from united right up until the early years of the last century, having survived a bitter and bloody civil war and then having to absorb millions of immigrants from a multiplicity of countries and cultures.
“It was those admen – the guys from Madison Avenue – who came up with the symbols, the Stars and the Stripes, the love of country… which helped build an amazing patriotism, a love of country before anything else.”
Kuzwayo says the early 1990s, after the release of Nelson Mandela and the eventual end of apartheid in 1994, held much promise here.
“But I think the industry went into what I call ‘survivalist mode’ when the reality of transformation began to hit home. It became a case of ‘he’s not getting my job’…”
In many agencies, this took the form of a reluctance to allow talented black creatives to progress, while often substandard white people were cosseted, adds Kuzwayo.
Thebe Ikalefeng, brand guru and pan-African marketing expert, says the marketing and advertising industry failed to offer a home to black creatives, many of whom left big agencies to set up on their own.
“It was a reflection of the times, really. And even those black agencies didn’t get the clients or the support to really challenge the established white agencies. If there had been this sort of challenge, we would not have seen this slide into mediocrity that is evident today.”
Ask Ikalefeng why it remains necessary to talk in terms of black and white, so many years after Mandela stood at the Union Buildings, and his answer is simple: “The products that are sold in this country, from the simplest to the luxury brands – the majority of their customers are black. Yet those companies are still majority white. As are their advertising agencies.”
This means that, logically, the marketing communication is being prepared and disseminated by people who are “not the target market”.
Ikalefeng adds: “You have to immerse yourself in that market, or if you can’t do that, you have to get someone who can interpret it for you. “Too few brands are doing that.” Ikalefeng cites the recent examples of the launch of the H&M fashion brand in South Africa, where the company was apparently taken by surprise by the negative reaction to its using only white models.
Then there was the case of the Woolworths store that displayed a number of black mannequins, all linked by a rope, leaving them looking a lot like slaves in chains.
“The merchandiser probably had no idea this would be offensive, and nobody could foresee the possibility that it could be interpreted in a negative way.”
Kuzwayo says clients also need to bear some of the responsibility for marketing and advertising not having done as much as they could to build bridges between the races.
“They seem to want to avoid the truth, to live in their little bubbles. ‘Don’t confuse me with the truth’ is what they are saying.”
Kuzwayo, who has held senior positions in top agencies, was one of the founders of Ignitive ad agency, where he styles himself as “Mwalimu” (or teacher).
“It has been very, very tough in the business for black people, whether in strategy, client service, or in creative. You have to be twice as good just to get your foot in the door and you have to keep proving yourself over and over.”
Ikalafeng agrees, but also has the broader view that blacks themselves, because of their “low selfesteem”, are in part responsible for blacks being held back.
“Generally speaking, they view, even subconsciously, anything white as being superior.”
Ikalefeng produces an annual ranking of Africa’s Top 100 favourite brands and it saddens him that, of those brands, 77 percent are foreign and only 23 percent African.
The opinions of Kuzwayo and Ikalefeng are interesting because they correlate with what I have been hearing from black people in the industry for many years, many of whom won’t go on the record because the reality is that their bosses are white.
I also believe the increased globalisation of world marketing is having an impact, in subtle ways, here in South Africa.
The truth is that we are seeing fewer African faces in ads on TV. The reason is that tight budgets mean many multinational brands are importing overseas work to show here.
This may be cost-effective, but it does nothing to help build our nation.
Think, for example, of impoverished black people in townships who are told by political rabble-rousers – and see in the streets around them – that whites have the wealth.
And then they see ads for expensive things like cars, watches and jewellery – and all the people in the ads are white.
Watch the ads some time – and see the proliferation of pretty, white people and clean, European cities. It’s jarring. It’s not real and it is insidious.
At the same time, though, we are starting to see genuinely heartwarming ads that speak to the basic human experience and remind us that we are, under the skin, pretty much the same and that we live in a beautiful, awesome country.