Day 13 - Advertising and Tequila

Justin Nurse and I would probably get on quite well. You may know of him. A while ago he had a company called Laugh It Off and they produced satirical T Shirts that took the piss out of big companies through their logo’s. I can only assume that that he was the brain child behind these items and the message was his personal opinion. I don’t know. But they were funny. To everyone. Except the suits. They were not amused.

So much so that S.A.B took him to court because he parodied their logo for Carling Black Label Beer to “Black Labour, White Guilt”. They lost and S.A.B looked like dicks bullying a small guy, and best of all S.A.B. had to pay all costs.

Now advertising, as we all know, is a necessary evil if you want your business to get ahead. Bit I ask, are students of advertising trained or educated to portray life and or situations in the rosiest of views, or have they found that it is the best and most boring method to get sales results? But – and this is the now famous but again – am I the only one to get irritated when advertisers picture a scene so overly sweet and so overly innocent in order to try and get the message through. Here’s an example; there is an ad currently being aired in South Africa. Its for a financial planning company – I can’t remember who exactly (so much for effective advertising?), they all sharks anyway – and they portray a picture of SA suburbia with waist high white picket fences, perfectly manicured gardens, pot hole free roads and landscaped verges. And black and white families living in harmony next door to each other, dad fixing the gutters while the kids play ball with each other and the other adults tan some meat in the front garden…and then, as the ad reaches its climax the black males are going off to watch a game and a clean, unbranded mini bus taxi turn up at their suburban home and whisks them off, narrowly avoiding an accident a few meters down the road.

Have you seen this ad? Does it irritate you? Do these companies who make these ads get the reality of living in South Africa? Or...is this reality? Is it me that hasn’t experienced this? Does this actually happen? I suspect not, but if it happens where you live, PLEASE let me know.

Surely, when the ad agency pitches their latest work to their clients, the client would say something about what the ad represents. Surely they would both question their own integrity and hence the authenticity of the picture created. Surely a booze company like SAB and Brandhouse, for example, are staffed by intelligent (when last I checked they wouldn’t employ anyone unless they have a degree – any degree will do), well adjusted people who understand the market in which they trade. Surely these same people would look at the ads and say something like “what a pile of shit, we don’t live like that”. Why is it that Brandhouse wins accolades for an ad that suggests, through suggestive filming and popular myth, what would happen to you if caught driving whilst drunk but doesn’t have an ad that shows the aftermath of a session on their tequila. Picture the hook line “TEQUILA: DRINK THIS AND YOU TOO WILL BECOME STRONG AND CAUSE SHIT BEFORE THROWING UP”. Now that would be Gold…sir!

And why is it that just about every beer ad is racially correct. Unless, of course, it’s the latest Hansa ad – then it’s about a rich black guy entertaining his black mates on his yacht with a mountain of beer. If I was a rich black guy I would be offended. Surely SAB would know…because they do own about 90% of the South African beer market!... that I only drink premium beer from a green bottle – oh, they don’t do Amstel anymore?, OK Heineken then – but my favourite is actually Black Label (get it?)  A white male, an Indian male, a coloured male and a black male always hang out together, at home, in the pub, they touch pause engage together and they celebrate life together. And they all drink Castle? I doubt it.

I wonder how much it costs to flight an ad on prime time television – I can’t imagine it’s cheap and to top that I wonder how effective, and measurable it is? I know when I’m in front of the box and the hour long series is constantly interrupted by ads, I channel surf. I try everything to avoid watching the ads. Everything. Because the maker of these ads, I think, live on a different planet, or maybe even in Cape Town!

I know this is my shallow take on the advertising world, I completely understand, I think, that advertising goes a lot deeper that what I have suggested but I have been known to get frustrated when money that could be put back into making the product better or at least cheaper is wasted on banal boring or bombastic ads. I suppose the final question today would be; do you even think about the ads when you’re watching TV? And if they weren’t there, would you miss them?

I wouldn’t miss the ads. Not one bit.

One final thought, I re visited my new favourite shop today just to see if it was still so good. Hell yeah. Even bought shit I didn’t need! Maybe I am, after all, a shopper waiting to exit the closet.

Until tomorrow! I need a beer....

P.S. my favourite TV ad this week? The South African National Defence Force i.e. the army, congratulating itself on being so good. So good at what? The spread of HIV? The arms deal maybe? Actually, scrap the beer, I'll have that tequila now.