#CampaignRadar: Nando’s hilarious Afro-futurism dig

Nando’s has dropped its latest ad — questioning “the surplus of ‘Afro-futurism’ on our screens at the moment” — to promote its half chicken with any single side this morning, Monday, 3 September 2018 (and notice the dig at the new Absa logo).

“Nando’s has always celebrated everything uniquely South African, both loveable and challenging! We love to fire up conversations and believe that talking about the current hyperbolic portrayal of African-ness is one such growing conversation,” says Doug Place, Nando’s South Africa CMO and recent winner of The Loeries Marketing Leadership & Innovation Award. “The diversity and beauty of Africa should be rightly celebrated; however, the portrayals in recent advertising are often bizarrely over the top and seemingly the same between brands and categories.

Face paint, neon lights, a certain new financial industry logo, burning TVs, overused and superfluous hashtags, bizarre metaphors, smoke bombs, the ‘announcer’ voice, the ubiquitous inner-city backdrop, a Mad-Max inspired throne, and even a hyena feature. “There’s so much more to being South African than one narrow vignette and we thought it would be fun to point out some of the absurdities of it all,” adds Place.

“We love the aesthetic of African creativity; just take a look at any of our restaurants around the world to see how proud we are to showcase Southern African creative work. African-ness is layered; it doesn’t always have to look so derelict, so serious, so over the top, and all the same.”

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