Columns Section • Page 309 of 318 •

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Ummm… me, beautiful?

The fashion industry has long been criticised for creating a false set of standards for beauty. Then again, in its defence, one only has to look at ancient statues and paintings – Greece’s Athena, Rome’s Venus – to realise that the appreciation of human beauty is something that is inherent in human nature. Nonetheless, the fashion industry stands accused of creating standards that the vast majority of women are unable to attain; using graphics software to soften every flaw, and even improve physical aspects such as lifted cheekbones, narrowed waistlines and plumped-up lips.

Psychologists say that this has caused many women to have a self-critical outlook on themselves, resulting in a loss of self-confidence and poor self-esteem.

In 2004, after market research indicated that only 4% of women consider themselves beautiful, Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty, originally produced by Ogilvy & Mather Brazil. It started off as a billboard campaign that featured ‘regular’ women photographed by Annie Liebowitz: the public were invited to vote on whether a particular model was “fat or fab” or “wrinkled or wonderful”… the votes being updated in real-time and displayed on the billboards.

Unilever, the owner of Dove, also published a study into women’s sense of self and identity. The study was aimed at creating “a new definition of beauty [which] will free women from self-doubt and encourage them to embrace their real beauty.”

Fair Exchange: Loyalty smoyalty

by Erna George. Brands partner consumers in many ways and finding ways to keep what should be a two-way partnership exciting is a challenge given all the many distractions around. One device employed seemingly at the drop of a hat in South Africa is the loyalty programme.

ABC Analysis Q2 2013: MarkLives’ Big Newspaper List

The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period April 2013 to June 2013. Here are a couple of numbers that stood out in terms of newspaper circulations.

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter.

ABC member circulation totals:
Daily Newspapers: down to 1,494,023 from 1,599,299 for the previous corresponding period
Weekly papers: down to 619,400 from 668,954
Weekend papers: down to 2,205,462 from 2,396,355
Local papers: down to 437,815 from 465,158
‘Hydrid’ papers: down to 165,641 from 166,951

ABC Analysis Q2 2013: The biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA

The ABC has released circulation statistics for the period April 2013 to June 2013. Here are a couple of consumer magazine ABC numbers that popped out for us. We also updated our list of the biggest circulating consumer magazines in SA!

Total ABC member circulation fell to 6,135,842 from 7,047,759 in the previous corresponding period (and from 6,207,891 in the previous quarter).

Note: We compare the current figures with the same figures for this time last year and not with the previous quarter!

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Satirical ads sell the Times

Newspapers have come under increasing pressure recently. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), circulation figures are falling year-on-year for most dailies and weeklies. The exception is, of course, the so-called ‘vernacular press’, with titles like Isolezwe holding firm despite economic pressure.

English and Afrikaans papers have to increasingly compete with digital, and at this stage many of them are in a fight for their lives. Lowe CT, agency for Independent Newspaper’s Cape Times, has produced a spunky radio ad campaign that does a great job (using humour) to market its brand.

Imagine getting people like Helen Zille, Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema to read news articles about themselves. Well, of course, that’s not going to happen, but with the help of impersonators, you can create the desired effect.

The choice of news article is key, and part of the humour is in hearing these voices referring to themselves in the third person. That, and the fact that these impersonators are really top-notch.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – you keep your eyes on the road

Mercedes Benz has developed yet another pioneering, high-tech innovation, aimed at improving road safety. Studies show that around one quarter of all serious motorway accidents are attributable to sleepy drivers in need of a rest, meaning that drowsiness causes more road accidents than drinking and driving.

This latest piece of computing wizardry works on several levels to analyse a driver’s behaviour in order to detect if they are getting sleepy at the wheel, and then sound an alarm that brings their attention back to reality.

Of course, just showing this technology would probably induce sleep in today’s low attention-span TV audience, so ad agency Net#work BBDO came up with an amusing take on two ‘Walter Mitty’ type characters. The first features a good looking executive type, who catches his own reflection in the mirror while driving. He’s clearly in love with himself, as each time he looks in the mirror, his gaze lingers a little longer.

The music, a Sinatra/Perry Como-style song (created for the ad by Pulse Music New York) that harks back to the sultry lounge-lizard era, is a ballad about “You’ve either got it or not,” – something that this driver seems to think is the case.

As his hand reaches up to run his fingers through his hair, and you’re about to snarl “Keep your eye on the road,” a loud beeping snaps him back to reality. It’s a reality that is a bit of a shock, because now we see that he is, in fact, balding, and maybe slightly older than the ‘mind’s eye’ picture that we previously had of him. The beeping sound was, of course, the Mercedes Benz Attention Assist technology, that picked up the fact that the driver wasn’t paying enough attention to the road, and quickly brought him back to reality.

The byline is: “‘When your mind wanders, ATTENTION ASSIST brings it back.”

The Switch: Pitching is like begging at an intersection

by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) Clients don’t enjoy advertising pitches any more than motorists enjoy stopping at a traffic light. We are all trying to leave a stranger with a lasting impression and we are all under huge time pressure.
There was a time not so long ago when all you saw at traffic lights were stories of poverty and strife and all you heard were heart-felt pleas for money and food. You still get a lot of that but in the main, begging has evolved, possibly in direct response to the impact of the global recession. The recession has increased the number of people begging and it has also left many would-be donors with little or no money to donate, resulting in a scramble for a smaller benevolent pie.

In their desperation to make ends meet, people begging have turned to … the power of branding. You can no longer paint them with the same brush. Their tools now range from a neutral plea for help to a bartering system where the donor receives a blessing, a clean windscreen, a garbage free car, gardening services, a joke, a trick, even a dance routine, in return for a small donation.

Waldimar Pelser: “Our rivals on Sunday aren’t other papers; it’s going on a picnic or lying in”

They started on the same day – June 1 this year – and that’s not the only similarity between Waldimar Pelser, the new editor of Rapport, and Bongani Siqoko, editor of the Daily Dispatch.

Both are young editors and are former news editors; both have studied in the UK (Pelser at the elite Oxford University). Both men are very much of their communities and have all sorts of interesting things up their sleeves.

Crucially, both must try grow circulation in this toughest of times in the newspaper industry.

For Pelser, who has been both a foreign correspondent covering Africa and the news editor of Beeld, that means achieving a balance between having stories that are of interest to readers and those that are in the public interest – and not forgetting about reputation and premium-quality journalism packages.

“Circulation is never the only thing one chases,” he told Grubstreet. “Of course, it pays our salaries and we constantly have to find and organically develop new markets. But if it were the only thing that mattered, you would put on the front page that which aims squarely at the lowest common denominator – and probably push up nudity and sex and alarmist politics. But none of these things, we believe, is really in the interest of our readers or journalism as a trade on even the future of democracy.

Ad of the Week with Oresti Patricios – Miracle on the Hudson

If this advert doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, or at the very least a lump to your throat, perhaps you need to check yourself in for some psychological observation. It’s rare that an advert gives me a sucker punch, but the new television for Nedgroup did just that. It took my breath away and reminded me of what a powerful story can do to communicate brand values.

Brandlab, with production company Giant Films produced the fantastic high-drama recreation of a story that captured the world’s attention a couple of years ago. It is the story of a dramatic event that made global headlines on January 15 2009, when Captain Chesley B “Sully” Sullenberger made an emergency landing of his Airbus A320-214 in the Hudson River, in New York. The ad celebrates this veteran pilot’s heroic and professional actions in the face of extreme danger, actions based on rational thinking and experience that saved the lives of 155 people.

The message of the commercial is: “In the right hands, anything is possible.”

Filmed in New York City, the ad starts with aerial footage over the city, and follows the flight path of the plane. Cut to Capt. Sullenberger, on location on the banks of the Hudson. “It was an ordinary winter’s day,” he tells us. Cut to various scenes of typical wintry New York activity: taxi drivers getting into their cars; kids crossing the street with their teacher; a dancer rehearsing. A plane takes off, and air traffic controllers speak to the pilot of Flight 1549.

Dear Digital Grandad: Should my agency have a blog?

Dear @DigitalGrandDad, One of the kids in the office asked me why our agency don’t have a blog. I need an answer that doesn’t make me seem old or lazy.

Dear Old and Lazy

As the saying goes, It’s never too late to teach an old dog new tricks, as I am sure you are not Lazy!

I think it is great that you have people in your company that are asking questions about how to further market your company and/or share what you are doing as a cutting edge agency with your intended target market. So without sounding lazy or old, you can share your wisdom, teach and mentor the young enthusiastic kid that ‘LIKE’ anything in Marketing, you can’t just say yes without having a strategic plan? Your answers ‘Old Dog’ should be around planning for example:

Great Little One! I am so glad you asked that question. It is something I have been meaning to look into for ages. However, we don’t have a plan yet.