by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) The 2014 Loeries are now over and, Cape Town, you may go back to sleep again. Just kidding — anybody who’s in the know understands that the Mother City has become a creative force that’s winning renown the world over. Part of this is that the city designated the World Design Capital for 2014, a title awarded biennially by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. Creative awards are another.
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Courting controversy
For those who were there, Loeries was a feast of South Africa’s top creative talent. Y&R was one of the agencies that proudly announced a bumper crop of awards this year. One in particular — not a Gold winner, but a Silver in print/newspaper advertising — is courting controversy, and I’ve chosen it for my Ad of the Week.
In May this year, Y&R produced a TV public service announcement (PSA) for Gun Free South Africa, an organisation that lobbies for stricter gun control legislation. Gun Free SA tries to persuade people to hand in their firearms, but also to take greater responsibility for the firearms they own.
The TV ad for this campaign showed a man’s hand holding a gun in a darkened alleyway, and then a woman’s arm comes into shot, to load the gun. The slogan is “If your stolen gun was there, so were you.”
Additional information
This was followed up with a print ad campaign, that supplies some additional information, and a call to action — for people to hand in their firearms. The three strikingly visual print pieces provide a ‘double-take’ moment that works so well in print.
Each of the three shows a criminal with a gun. At first glance, one may not even notice that the second arm holding the firearm doesn’t belong to the criminal. In one case, it’s a businessman’s arm; in another, it’s a woman’s; in the third, it’s a t-shirted arm that contrasts with the gangster’s leather jacket.
Each ad has the same slogan, “If your stolen gun was there, so were you.”
A slightly different message
In the copy, each one of the ads communicates a slightly different message. One reads: “Eighteen South Africans are shot and killed each day.” Another reads, “Over 50 firearms are reported misplaced or stolen every day in South Africa.” In the third, a variation of this scary statistic: “An average of 19 500 firearms are reported stolen or misplaced each year in South Africa.”
The TV spot has been criticised for its lack of a clear call to action, but these print ads make it perfectly clear in the copy: “Take responsibility. Hand in your gun. Visit gfsa.org.za for more information.”
Simple, clear, concise.
And an improvement upon the TV ad, which was taken to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) by the South Africa Gun Owners Association (SAGA).
The ASA ruled that the TV PSA implied a causal link between the stolen firearms and crime. It found that the advert ‘oversimplifies’ the matter, and places what appears to be an unjustified blame on gun owners. Because of this, the television ad, as it was, is no longer being aired.
Be that as it may, it seems the only people complaining were the SAGA members, who promote the use of firearms for sport and self-defence, and forum members of www.gunsite.co.za.
The gun-ownership debate seems to be heating up in SA and taking central stage, particularly after the bloody details of the Oscar Pistorius murder trial and Pistorius’ fascination with weapons were heard in court. The gun-loving global athlete, who shot his girlfriend dead in his home during the early hours of 14 February 2013, has escaped being found guilty of murder. Instead, the athlete was found guilty of culpable homicide mid-September 2014.
Challenge was particularly fraught
It is a difficult and emotionally charged subject to tackle, and one that has champions and detractors who fight with equal ferocity on both sides of the fence. This is why the challenge set to Y&R was particularly fraught, and why the agency demands a nod for taking the Gun Free Campaign on, not just for its awards*.
Guns in the wrong hands wreak havoc and cause massive tragedy and loss in this country. The more people who are aware of — and involved in — this debate, the better.
*At the 2014 Loeries, Y&R won metal in the traditional and design categories, earning itself two Gold, four Bronze Loeries, and two Craft Certificates in addition to the Silver awarded for Gun Free ads.
Ad of the Week, published on MarkLives every Wednesday, is penned by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki), the CEO of Ornico, a Brand Intelligence® firm that focuses on media, reputation and brand research.
If you are involved in making advertising that is smart, funny and/or engaging,
please let Oresti know about it at info@ornicogroup.co.za.
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This ad campaign was banned by the ASA. How can it be the ad of the week if the standards agency ruled against it?!?!?
Strange how this is given an accolade despite a ASA ruling declaring it misleading. In terms of the ruling, the ad was to no longer be aired.
I supposed if you only want to see and hear input from a specific sector , you are bound to believe all the bull**** hype.
Thank you for comments. I realise that this is a controversial topic, and I have avoided taking sides in the debate. My main interest in this advert is in its effectiveness in communicating a message. Obviously there are ethical considerations, and I have gone back and re-read the ASA judgement very carefully. My understanding is that there was only one ad that was banned, and that was the one that had the statistic about the 18 South Africans killed every day. The ASA found that by using this statistic, it could be inferred that all of these deaths are caused by stolen firearms, whereas this figure includes police actions, suicides, accidents etc. and therefore this was misleading.
I cannot speak on behalf of the organisers of the Loerie awards. I believe that these ads work overall as a message that encourages gun-owners to be more careful with their firearms, become more aware of their responsibilities as firearm owners, and surrender them if they realise that they are not able to take the appropriate care. The fact is that statistically, gun owners are four times more likely to have a firearm used against them than they are to use one successfully in self-defence. Add to that the number of accidental deaths, femicides and murders, and the picture is not so rosy.