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by Kim Penstone Creating empathy for a man such as Robert Mugabe is no easy feat. But that was the task put to Dean Blumberg of Bouffant by agency Black River FC and client Nando’s. The result is the unforgettable “Last Dictator Standing”, which gave South Africans a glimpse into the loneliness of the long-term dictator since the demise of his brothers-in-arms Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin and our very own PW Botha.

The ad sees the ‘Last Dictator’ reminiscing about the good old days with his crew of like-minded comrades, bringing to life a collection of outrageous yet simultaneously nostalgic scenes (the water pistol fight with Gaddafi, the sand angels with Saddam…) that have burned themselves into the collective conscious of our generation – not only in South Africa, but across the globe.

After just six days on air and online, the ad had garnered over 1 million YouTube views. It was the number one entertainment video in South Africa for a week, and the number one video for the month. It went on to trend globally, with over 70 000 Facebook updates referencing the ad, and 9 530 tweets (and that’s only the open accounts that can be tracked), as well as garnering over 1000 blog and website posts. The Huffington Post commented on it, as did Boing Boing and Time. Even Stephen Fry mentioned it in a tweet.

The ad won Creative Circle Ad of the Year and the Loerie Grand Prix in 2012 as well as a Bronze Lion at the Cannes International Advertising Awards. It also sold bucket loads of chicken.

And Dean Blumberg almost turned it down.

“When I first saw the script, I was tired I’d just finished a big job, and I didn’t really have a vision for it immediately,” he explains shaking his head incredulously.

He adds that he was also amazed that Black River had given him this opportunity. By his own admission, he’s a newcomer on the commercials directing front – at the time, he had only five years under his belt.

So what was the secret to the ad’s success?

In a word: Courage.

Although Blumberg doesn’t say it out loud, it’s clear you need to have pretty big cojones to make an ad that makes that big an impact – not only across the country in which it airs, but also across the globe.

“Last Dictator” was big gamble on the part of agency Black River FC, not only because of the political content, but also the prevailing atmosphere of fear in the industry, and the resultant tendency towards conservative advertising.

“It’s a lot tougher and a lot tighter out there than it used to be,” Blumberg explains. “The demands on agencies are much greater. The need for advertising to succeed in quantifiable sales terms is huge. And if it doesn’t work in those terms, it’s not just bad – it’s losing the account bad.

“The fear factor in this industry is through the roof insane. Nobody wants to offend anyone, and nobody wants to take any risks. Nobody can afford to.”

And this is where, in Blumberg’s opinion, advertising has the potential to go horribly wrong.

“Clients believe that sales are what attribute value to a brand. But they’re completely wrong. People don’t buy into sales campaigns anymore. Because money is tight, people buy out of necessity, loyalty or love – nothing else.”

“Commercials are one of the avenues whereby brands create that love, and I believe that as filmmakers we play a key role in this,” he says.

“Last Dictator” is a case in point. It was risky, it had the potential to offend. But because the ad was universally loved, it paid dividends not only in terms of heavy metal but also in sales. Across the country, and around the world wherever you could buy Nando’s, people did so in droves. Sales went through the roof.

How does he do it? Like any other high-achiever, he works incredibly hard. He takes his job seriously. So seriously, in fact, that in the run up to shooting Nando’s “Last Dictator Standing” (which took home the 2012 Loerie Grand Prix), he spent every waking minute of three weeks studying the dictators, immersing himself into their worlds, analysing their body language, scrutinising their public personas and delving into their private lives, learning their individual nuances and analysing everything from their wardrobes to their wallets.

Prior to directing Santam’s Sir Sneaky for example (which won a joint Loerie Campaign Gold in 2012), and upon hearing that he would be working with Sir Ben Kingsley, Blumberg spent three months watching and rewatching every Ben Kingsley movie he could find, reading about the man and his success, trying to understand how he works and what makes him tick.

“I know far more about Sir Ben than I should,” he admits reluctantly.

This comes across clearly in his work. Because he knows so much about his subject matter, he has the ability to communicate an entire concept with a single smirk, a simple pair of sunglasses or a pair of pristine white gloves.

Blumberg is an obsessive observer, a consummate collector of facts, figures and information. The way in which he works is reminiscent of a quintessential independent film director, someone who should be rolling his own tobacco on a set somewhere along the French Riviera, instead of in an office in Rivonia.

Blumberg has a background as a film director. In fact, his short films have been showcased at the Cannes Film Festival (the real one). He is still making films – today they are just shorter and his main characters are brands.

And herein lies the secret to his success.

Blumberg’s ‘films’ all connect with their audience, in much the same way that a full length feature film does. But unlike a feature film director, who has 120 minutes to create that connection, Blumberg has 30 seconds.

Although this is one of Blumberg’s favourite topics and he admits he could hold court for hours, there are certain rules that he sticks to:

# 1

“Never talk down to an audience. Never assume that the audience needs an explanation at every turn,” says Blumberg.

If scripts or directors fill in all the gaps, there is no space for the audience to fill in their own gaps. It gives them an excuse to passively watch, instead of actively engage. A good director will give the audience clues, as opposed to telling them what to think.

#2

“Casting is crucial, in fact, it’s 95% of the job. We get stuck in a rut of what we think is good in South Africa, partly because we have a limited local pool of talent – but no one says you have to stick local.”

Would “Sir Sneaky” have been as successful as it was without Sir Ben Kingsley at the helm?

# 3

“People need to see themselves in the characters on screen. They need to see a reflection of their own humanity.”

This is why, in Blumberg’s opinion, “Last Dictator” was such a roaring success.

“We could have mocked Mugabe, it would have been so easy, but instead we made him human. In that brief instant, we all connect with the man as opposed to the caricature, because everyone understands what it feels like to be lonely,” he says.

#4

Although he doesn’t say it out loud, it’s clear you need to have pretty big cojones to make an ad that makes an impact.

“To make a really great advertisement today, in this climate, is something really really special,” Blumberg concludes. “Clients are tough, the demands are huge, budgets are low – it’s actually a really painful process. So I take my hat off to clients and agencies that are still making it happen.”

Ever the thinker, Blumberg adds one last though to the conversation:

“The good news is that this hardship means that advertising is no longer an industry for people who just want to get rich and live glamorously. You will only make it in this industry if you are really committed to it, and that’s great too, because it means the end product will benefit.”

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