THE controversial billboard that went up this past week wasn’t selling cars or alcohol or toothpaste. It was selling somebody’s view on our president.
For a moment, I would like to look at this billboard as if I were a judge on an advertising awards show. Would it get an award?
The brief seemed clear and simple — leverage the message #ZumaMustFall in the public domain and show the president that we’re serious. The media space was a very visible, well-known location. The budget — whatever it takes. The target market — not clearly defined. Copy — simple, headline-driven. Design — bold and minimal. Did it go viral? No doubt.
But is it great advertising?
No. While the billboard got everyone’s attention, inspired people to tear it to shreds and was somewhat brave and got media mileage, it missed the most important thing a great advert should do — mean something.
Even the most crazy, seemingly silly advertising work, such as Budweiser’s "Whassup", had meaning. That campaign spoke to the core of beer drinking — camaraderie and male behaviour.
The message #ZumaMustFall is not a message that carries enough might and meaning. I’m no fan of President Jacob Zuma, his leadership, his views and his blithering commentary. But a billboard that calls for his fall is too vague and ineffective.
During the past few months, I’ve started to see that while public sentiment needs to be voiced, we need to be more informed, more targeted and more grounded. If we don’t consider the depth of what we say, it becomes sensational and turns into internet fodder.
If this message was directed at Zuma or the African National Congress (ANC), I consider it failed advertising and just poor propaganda.
Journalist Ranjeni Munusamy articulates it in a fine manner. She says while messages such as #ZumaMustFall will only make the president more unpopular, it won’t have any real effect. "The ANC will only respond to pressure from inside its ranks and, so far, #ZumaMustFall has not had any palpable impact inside the party," says Munusamy. If anything, the billboard succeeded in helping the ANC to stand by its man and protect him.
While working on the Nando’s brand a few years ago, I spent a good deal of time in lawyers’ offices, planning ways of defending our often controversial work. Some of our commercials only survived a day on air before being banned. But what always remained at the heart of whatever we did was to sell flame-grilled peri-peri chicken. And we always did.
The #ZumaMustFall billboard has no brand behind it. It’s not really selling anything except an overhashed, empty slogan. If we are trying to build brand SA, we have to do it with deeper analysis, painstaking footwork and considered action. Otherwise it becomes expensive graffiti. And a greasy social media breakfast. It is not sustainable and distracts us from really interrogating the ways in which ordinary people can make change happen.
As an advertiser, I’ve also been thinking of the role of creativity and ways of sticking it to the man, of fighting our system and being heard. And yes, the billboard crossed my mind too. But it’s not good enough.
While words and pictures are symbolic — are signs of our times — the real power comes in decisions we make and actions we take as ordinary people and as corporates with responsibility. It comes from ordinary citizens and big brands countering idiocy and poor governance with consciousness and smart, creative solutions.
American poet James Russell Lowell said: "Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found." There is nothing at the moment to be made out of that billboard. And for that reason, it gets no gold, or silver or even bronze award.
• Gordhan is a creative director in advertising
ZumaMustFall billboard. Picture: AFP PHOTO/RODGER BOSCH
THE controversial billboard that went up this past week wasn’t selling cars or alcohol or toothpaste. It was selling somebody’s view on our president.
For a moment, I would like to look at this billboard as if I were a judge on an advertising awards show. Would it get an award?
The brief seemed clear and simple — leverage the message #ZumaMustFall in the public domain and show the president that we’re serious. The media space was a very visible, well-known location. The budget — whatever it takes. The target market — not clearly defined. Copy — simple, headline-driven. Design — bold and minimal. Did it go viral? No doubt.
But is it great advertising?
No. While the billboard got everyone’s attention, inspired people to tear it to shreds and was somewhat brave and got media mileage, it missed the most important thing a great advert should do — mean something.
Even the most crazy, seemingly silly advertising work, such as Budweiser’s "Whassup", had meaning. That campaign spoke to the core of beer drinking — camaraderie and male behaviour.
The message #ZumaMustFall is not a message that carries enough might and meaning. I’m no fan of President Jacob Zuma, his leadership, his views and his blithering commentary. But a billboard that calls for his fall is too vague and ineffective.
During the past few months, I’ve started to see that while public sentiment needs to be voiced, we need to be more informed, more targeted and more grounded. If we don’t consider the depth of what we say, it becomes sensational and turns into internet fodder.
If this message was directed at Zuma or the African National Congress (ANC), I consider it failed advertising and just poor propaganda.
Journalist Ranjeni Munusamy articulates it in a fine manner. She says while messages such as #ZumaMustFall will only make the president more unpopular, it won’t have any real effect. "The ANC will only respond to pressure from inside its ranks and, so far, #ZumaMustFall has not had any palpable impact inside the party," says Munusamy. If anything, the billboard succeeded in helping the ANC to stand by its man and protect him.
While working on the Nando’s brand a few years ago, I spent a good deal of time in lawyers’ offices, planning ways of defending our often controversial work. Some of our commercials only survived a day on air before being banned. But what always remained at the heart of whatever we did was to sell flame-grilled peri-peri chicken. And we always did.
The #ZumaMustFall billboard has no brand behind it. It’s not really selling anything except an overhashed, empty slogan. If we are trying to build brand SA, we have to do it with deeper analysis, painstaking footwork and considered action. Otherwise it becomes expensive graffiti. And a greasy social media breakfast. It is not sustainable and distracts us from really interrogating the ways in which ordinary people can make change happen.
As an advertiser, I’ve also been thinking of the role of creativity and ways of sticking it to the man, of fighting our system and being heard. And yes, the billboard crossed my mind too. But it’s not good enough.
While words and pictures are symbolic — are signs of our times — the real power comes in decisions we make and actions we take as ordinary people and as corporates with responsibility. It comes from ordinary citizens and big brands countering idiocy and poor governance with consciousness and smart, creative solutions.
American poet James Russell Lowell said: "Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found." There is nothing at the moment to be made out of that billboard. And for that reason, it gets no gold, or silver or even bronze award.
• Gordhan is a creative director in advertising
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