Sadly, these days, many with ideas slightly above tepid on the creative scale crow that they are disruptive. 

But they’re not. 

Some are just merely irritating.

Spar disrupts print advertising

Irritating to us journalists (especially those of us working in the “dinosaur” medium of print) is anyone messing with our page layouts.

These came to the media world shortly after Moses descended from the mountain with the Ten Commandments and they are almost as sacred in the eyes of many hacks.

That’s why Spar’s recent Christmas campaign’s print execution genuinely caused a bit of disruption in the newsrooms and on the tables of sub-editors.

In four blocks distributed diagonally across two facing pages of the papers, the ads told the story of “Barry”, a Brit who ends up in South Africa for Christmas and discovers how differently we do things here over the festive season.

I quite liked the idea and, while that possibly makes me a print newspaper heretic, I think this is the sort of thinking that could breathe new life into print as an advertising, as well as a news, medium.

The Barry ads would have been useless, though, if their function didn’t follow their heading-turning form. 

And they did just that – pitching a simple, yet innocent tale which reminded us of how special we are, something we don’t always realise, but how obvious it seems when seen through the eyes of an outsider.

The video executions give movement to Barry’s story: How he ends up in a Karoo town over Christmas and gets to experience, first-hand, our wonderful hospitality and our odd (to him anyway) customs – like a braai on Christmas Day.

Not only does the ad showcase our unique cultural and food tastes, but it also serves as a display cabinet for the goodies on sale at Spar. 

It’s a reminder that the festive season is just around the corner (even though it started flying late in October) and you can get everything you want at your local Spar.

The patriotism isn’t overdone and nor is the hard sell – two things which could have easily turned the simple charm of the ad sour.

It works on so many levels and pushes the boundaries of media placement. Therefore, Spar gets an Orchid from me.

Also Orchids for agency TBWA Coastal and Bevan Cullinan of Together Films.

PR forges the numbers 

There is a famous, but highly accurate, saying that there are only three kinds of journalists: Those who can count and those who can’t.

It seems that PR companies are going that way too or, more worryingly, they do understand numbers but are deliberately trying to inflate them to convey a misleading impression.

This week another breathless PR release (aren’t they all) landed in my inbox on behalf of Howler Head, which touts itself as a “unique banana-flavoured Kentucky bourbon” (ewww).

According to the release – sent to me from Stanley House on behalf of Catalyst Spirits, which looks like it is part of the global Campari Group (although this was not clear from the release) – Howler Head is the “official flavoured bourbon whiskey” of the UFC, the global mixed martial arts organisation.

What did catch my eye was the claim that UFC had 17 million fans in South Africa.

Really? 

More than one in four people (of all ages and genders) in this country? 

I don’t think so.

Barry swaps snow for sunshine in Spar's festive South African ad

30 Oct 2024

So I asked the person who sent it to me, who goes by the name Shannon (fortunately for her, no surname), where she got her information from.

Unsurprisingly – crickets.

I did a bit of Googling and discovered that there is very little reliable information on UFC's popularity in South Africa. 

The closest estimate was that there are about 100,000 fans here. 

That tallies with what a source at SuperSport told me: When our own Dricus Du Plessis won his UFC title, he attracted around 130,000 viewers on the channel. 

That’s an impressive number for a sports event, but still nothing like 17 million.

So, a huge Howler by Howler Head.

Or was it?

There are two possibilities here: One, nobody checked the figure and the release was sent out anyway or, two, somebody deliberately made up the figure in the hope no one in the SA media would check it.

Either way, this is nothing more than disinformation or fake news, as Guru Elon would say.

This is not the way to market any product – other than a Ponzi scheme.

Therefore, Shannon, Stanley House and Catalyst Spirits… you all get Onions.