Jacquie Golding-Duffy
IN its report last month, the task group on government communications (Comtask), set up by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, urged government departments to improve relations with the media and ensure speedy responses to queries.
I can assure you that the Media Mad column, which appears regularly on the Antenna pages, received no speedy replies from most ministries, despite repeated faxing and telephone calls.
However, one cannot paint all the ministers with the same brush of inefficiency. Leading exceptions to the rule were Minister of Forestry and Water Affairs Kader Asmal; Minister of Agricultural and Land Affairs Derek Hanekom; Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfred Nzo; former minister of mineral and energy affairs Pik Botha and former minister of telecommunications Pallo Jordan.
Speedy responses from Truth and Reconciliation Commission chair Desmond Tutu, Hunt Lascaris managing director Reg Lascaris and Lindsay Smithers-FCB’s managing director Harry Herber, certainly shamed those people who regarded themselves as too important and too busy to respond.
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel was “too busy” and so was his deputy, Gill Marcus. Both were faxed as early as February with repeated phone calls throughout the year, and still I have received not a word.
Even Police Commissioner George Fivaz – certainly one of the busiest people in the government – responded, while Minister of Transport Mac Maharaj was also “too busy” (or out the country), according to his assistants.
Madam Speaker Frene Ginwala also never took the time – a maximum of five minutes – to reply to the seven questions Media Mad asked.
President Nelson Mandela, who appears in this week’s column, can surely teach his ministers a lesson in good public relations.
Those who did reply to the Mail & Guardian’s questions expressed a wonderful sense of humour which I’m sure has endeared them to many readers. Nzo wanted to be Pele, the Brazilian football star, while Minister of Education Sibusiso Bengu wanted to be Morgan Freeman in the Shawshank Redemption; Tutu saw himself as James Bond, while Asmal was Groucho Marx.
Many of the respondents, who included broadcasting chiefs, several politicians, celebrities and respected figures such as World Bank representative Judith Edstrom, made for an interesting read.
l Respondents to Media Mad considered Vodacom’s Yebo Gogo advertisement their all-time favourite. The advertisement was the brainchild of Lindsay Smithers-FCB creative director Francois de Villiers.
De Villiers said the stars – Yebo Gogo man Kole Omotoso, an English professor at the University of the Western Cape, and ponytailed yuppie Michael de Pinha, were recruited and cast by the ad agency.
“The idea behind the advertisement was to say that a cellular phone is not just a yuppie tool. It is an indispensable accessory once you own one,” De Villiers said.
De Villiers, who has been with the agency for about two-and-a-half years, says Vodacom was his first major account which, overnight, has developed a life of its own.
Group executive for corporate affairs at the Vodacom group, Joan Joffe, says the group was looking for something dramatic to capture viewers’ attentions. “The agency came to us with this interesting concept and before we knew it, it was a runaway success.”
Joffe says sales sky-rocketed and the awareness levels of audiences shot up as the advertisement had popular appeal.
The initial Yebo Gogo advert, which featured an old man selling windmills to a snooty yuppie, was awarded the South African Broadcasting Corporation TV1 award for the most popular advertisement on the channel in 1995 by viewers.
This year, Vodacom was named advertiser of the year by the Financial Mail.
The Yebo Gogo advert which featured the roadside hawker scored an awareness rating of 48%, according to Impact Information’s Adtrack. The norm for television adverts in general is 19%.
The second advert, the beach/lifesaver ad, achieved 35%, also way above the norm, when it was broadcast a month later.