/ 8 August 1996

Advertising industry snubs `Africa’s Oprah’

Is Felicia Mabuza-Suttle’s personality preventing her show from attracting advertisers? Jacquie Golding-Duffy reports on the politics behind the `high-risk’ programme

The Felicia Mabuza-Suttle show, regarded by black audiences as the “African version of Oprah Winfrey”, has failed to attract advertising despite its popularity.

Although one of the most successful SABC local television talk shows, the programme has not received much advertising support because media planners from large advertising agencies dislike Mabuza-Suttle and are unimpressed with her show.

As one media planner put it: “My client feels that Felicia is far too much of a racist and on principle, they won’t let me put ads on her show”, while another said: “Listen, the Felicia show would be my last ditch.” A third has this to say: “Most of the time you get the feeling she is not really listening, she is too busy promoting Felicia.”

Research conducted for the South African Broadcasting Corporation by an independent researcher, Insight Market Research Consultants, has shown that South Africa’s leading advertising agencies are reluctant to sell advertising around Mabuza-Suttle as they regard the show as “high risk” despite its good ratings.

The objective of the research, which was conducted among media planners, was to evaluate whether personal viewing habits influenced the choice of media purchasing. Although media planners vehemently deny that their personal feelings are involved, it seems their attitudes toward Mabuza-Suttle and her show play a significant role in the lack of advertising.

“It really depends on how you feel about her as to whether you will support her show,” said one ad agent.

The report stipulates that respondents who disliked Felicia and/or her show became “almost self- righteous, punitive or even vicious in their attitude towards and descriptions of both Felicia and her show”.

The research not only assessed the reaction of media planners to Mabuza-Suttle on a personal level, but also monitored any racial bias that influenced their reactions to the show.

The research was conducted among top South African advertising agencies including Lindsay Smithers FCB, Lintas, Hunt Lascaris TBWA, McCann Erickson and Ogilvy & Mather, Rightford, Searle-Tripp & Makin, among others. The advertisers were told that the research was in a bid to obtain guidelines on how best to market certain programmes and to gauge the advertising sector’s attitude towards the show.

Some of the spontaneous responses to the Mabuza- Suttle show from advertising agents included: “racist”, “rude”, “talk, talk, talk”, “aggressive”, “pain”, “self-indulgent”, “arrogant”, “super-ego”, “acts too white”, “too American” and “unsubtle”.

Positive responses included: “New South Africa”, “lively”, “good interviewer”, and “dynamic and controversial”.

SABC television analyst Don Seokane says ratings for the show are fairly high, fluctuating between seven Audience Ratings (about 700 000 viewers) and nine ARs (about one million viewers). SABC has a total audience of about five million viewers, Seokane says.

Talk shows and current affairs programmes are regarded as “topical” shows, often avoided by potential clients interested in purchasing advertising time, the report said.

Audiences of controversial shows often fluctuate depending on the issue being debated and/or discussed, argued media planners. They said there was a hesitancy displayed by clients to buy advertising time around these shows as viewership is erratic.

“I know clients feel more comfortable buying something that is more predictable,” one media planner said.

A comment expressed by a media planner was that one could “see by her [Mabuza-Suttle] body language that she is not really even listening to her audience”.

Criticism of Mabuza-Suttle did not stop at her alleged insincerity, but extended to her dress, with media planners complaining that her “glittering clothes” accompanied with a “know-it-all” attitude did not bode well for her or the show and did not encourage them to sell advertising.

The report found that advertisers deemed the show “too political” and sometimes “very pro-black” and “even anti-white”, with panel and audience mix limited to “token whites”.

“The only white faces you see in the audience are those she invited,” said another media planner.

The general feeling among advertisers was that Mabuza-Suttle allowed her own personal beliefs to dominate the show and that she often led the debate in favour of her opinion in an “abrasive and rude” presenting style. “She cuts people off and is self- indulgent. If the discussion doesn’t go the way she wants it to go, she

will change it,” one planner said. “She is always right, absolutely!”

The performance of the show in terms of its AR ratings was not impressive enough for advertisers who felt it was “not a good buy”. Advertisers say the show is not an option because it is overpriced and no one is quite sure who the target market is. The audience profile, however, is considered to be the “more educated black elite”, but advertisers say this “limited market” can be reached via programmes that have some crossover and a broader white and black audience.

Overall reaction to the Mabuza-Suttle show, outside of advertisers, are mixed, with only a few viewers regarding it as a good show. The majority of white people believed the show is “not acceptable”.

Black, coloured and Indian viewers enjoy the show with a large majority of black viewers regarding her as a role model. Some black respondents, however, felt Mabuza-Suttle should be “more black”, with some advocating an earlier time slot and subtitles or dubbed broadcasts. While black audiences are quite happy with the Mabuza-Suttle package, white audiences want a lighter, more entertaining show, such as the Oprah Winfrey programme where the presenter does not take herself so seriously and always attempts to find the lighter side to serious issues.

Mabuza-Suttle suffered harsh criticism at the hands of viewers who had some of the same gripes as advertisers. Viewers said while the show was supposed to be “for the people, Felicia made sure that the entire show was on her”.

Viewers, black and white, also said Mabuza-Suttle “talked too much during the show” and “bombarded” viewers with her opinions.