by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Joe Public promotes the schooling NGO it created and supports with a clear, simple message that highlights the crisis in education in South Africa — and the problem of wasteful government spending.
This is a story about a president and a plan, and an adman who wants to do more than make money. He wants to craft a life of meaning. Like all good stories, there are heroes and villains, tragedies and triumphs. But let’s start right at the very beginning, shall we? Are you all sitting two square and comfy? Then I shall begin.
SA’s education system is — how can I put this? Let me say euphemistically that it is not working. This week’s Ad of the Week, once again for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called One School at a Time, is focused upon getting people to think about why SA’s public education system doesn’t deliver, and what could be done about it.
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The ad, “Jet”, takes the form of an illustration, reminiscent of the sort of simple mathematical illustrations used in primary school. On the left is a line drawing of a jet plane, then there is an equals sign, and on the right of the equation, 189 identical little school houses. At the bottom is the caption: “Dear Mr President. We think you should do the maths.” Beside this is the One School at a Time logo.
It is is done in grey, white and burgundy-red. Simple. Clear. Elegant. But, most importantly, very impactful.
Context
Here’s where the story context comes in. SA spends a lot of money on education — much more than most other countries. Take a look at World Bank data, and you’ll see that, if you express our government’s spending on education as a percentage of GDP and contrast it with that of other countries, our country’s public schooling system is one of the most expensive in the world. But what kind of returns are we getting?
Sadly (and this is the part of the story where the tragedy comes in) SA’s national education system delivers such poor outcomes that it is literally trapping people in poverty. As One School at a Time says on its website: “In South Africa, there are 27 000 schools, of which 22 000 are dysfunctional and which contribute annually to an already dysfunctional society.”
Why does it do this? This is because, at dysfunctional schools, learners drop out before they reach matric, or often leave school functionally illiterate and innumerate. This means that learners in wealthy areas are geared for a successful life, but that children in poor or disadvantaged areas often fall behind, and don’t get the head start they need to get out of the environment they’re born into. Instead of creating entrepreneurs and skilled youngsters ready for the job market, more and more youngsters are unemployed.
Hero
The hero of this story is a much-admired man called Pepe Marais. If you follow him on on Twitter, you’ll know that he is obsessed with meaning. For Marais, his partner, Gareth Leck, and all the good people at Joe Public, being in advertising isn’t just about making money; it is also about crafting meaning.
Part of the way Joe Public has created shared meaning for the agency, for clients and for the beneficiaries of the One School at a Time project is to run an education project that really works.
“We partnered with Forte High School in 2008 as our first beneficiary school of One School at a Time,” the copy at the NGO’s site reads. “Forte High is based in Dobsonville, Soweto — a no-fee-paying school serving the township community including the Reconstruction Development Settlement, which mostly consists of child-headed families. In a school with an actual capacity of 1050 learners, the learners’ roll for 2016 is well over 1800, which means every contribution we make goes towards the advancement of these learners.
“The pass rate of 52% back in 2007 steadily improved to 66% in 2010 and then to a fantastic 94% in 2014 — last year our grade 12 learners passed with a 88.4% average. Total distinctions achieved was 49 and 43% of the learners passed with bachelor pass (University Exemption) — positioning Forte High amongst the top township schools in Gauteng. So our involvement at the school has certainly made an impact.” The plan now is to expand this impact to the next school.
Villain
Now let’s get back to that advert and the villain of this story — which is anyone in government who is involved with graft or wasteful spending that should have been channelled to this country’s betterment.
Speaking to EWN, Pepe Marais, the founder of One School at a Time and the founding partner of Joe Public, says, “The objective of the ad is to draw attention to the fact that we are discussing billion-rand jets in South Africa when we are sitting with a crisis in education. The bottom line is you should not be investing in a jet when you can fly commercial business class. It’s good enough when you have a shocking state of education in South Africa.”
It is going to take a lot more than just money to fix SA’s education problem, but what makes this communication work is that Joe Public is in the trenches, doing the hard business of crafting a solution to this country’s schooling crisis. With One School at a Time, the agency — and its partners in this project — has unlocked how to make a real difference in the country.
And as Nelson Mandela once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” It is the only ‘weapon’ useful for crafting a happier, more-meaningful narrative for this country, one that enables people to realise their potential and build better lives while building a better country.
Salute Pepe and Joe Public! And thank you.
Credits
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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Hmm, indifferent to work that doesn’t require a paying client sign off. I thought the industry had left this devaluing habit behind. That said, the idea is ordinary & obvious. It’s a first base idea to equate Presidential jet expenditure with any number of more meaningful alternatives, so it’s hardly very imaginative. Yes it’s linked to a cause but how does it help the school or the NGO? Where is the evidence of how the ad “unlocked how to make a real difference in the country”?