Maria McCloy
THE standard of this year’s Loerie Awards was higher than in previous years, and the competition stiffer. But the advertising industry is still struggling to relate meaningfully to a multi-cultural society. This is the view of several judges and competitors at South Africa’s most prestigious advertising awards extravaganza.
Held with customary pomp at the Sun City Superbowl, the highest accolades – three Grands Prix and 12 Loeries – went to Hunt Lascaris TBWA, for BMW’s airbags cinema commercial, Imperial car rental’s TV commercial and the magazine ad for Playtex Wonderbra.
Second place went to DDB SA which won three Grands Prix and nine Loeries. Unlike Hunt Lascaris, who won for above-the-line advertising, DDB was rewarded for its below- the-line campaigns for the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and in categories for promotional marketing, graphic design and direct marketing.
Two Grands Prix went to Ogilvy & Mather Rightford Searle-Tripp and Makin for Volkswagen in the outdoor category and a social services ad for the Transport Department. They also earned six Loeries. Net#work won two Grands Prix in the press/magazine and newspaper categories for the Virgin Atlantic campaign.
Yet beneath the hip hype, cutting edge concepts and trendy images, overall there was an absence of South African identity.
“By the same token that we can talk about what characterises Australian movies or a British sense of humour, I think South Africa is still in the process of finding itself,” said Nkwenkwe Nkomo, one of the few black judges at the awards. He believed looking for a local identity affected the advertising industry as much as any communication or arts field.
His observations reinforce those of John Farquhar, editor of Advantage magazine – a respected trade publication. In the June issue, Farquhar quotes Nizan Guanaes, head of Brazilian agency, DM9, and one of the Loerie judges, as saying: “The work I saw could easily have been produced in New York or London. There is nothing uniquely African about it.”
Farquhar adds: “Too many of our creatives are not creative in the true sense of the word. It is easy to lift an idea for BMW created by better creative brains in Europe or the States and tweak it so that it communicates to the few international citizens living in this country. The sad thing is that the South African `creative club’ approves this style of advertsing creativity by rewarding those who practise it.”
But many insiders agree that there were refreshing exceptions to this internationalist rule. These included several award-winning outdoor advertisements that focused on reaching as broad a market as possible.
There was also the Virgin Atlantic Airways campaign featuring a gorilla lock commonly used to prevent car theft securing the controls of an aircraft, above the words “Our latest destination, Johannesburg”. Net#work creative director Mike Schalit believes the campaign “hit the button at the right time”.
But while Schalit disagrees with the view that local agencies tend more often than not to emulate their overseas counterparts, he agrees that not enough in the industry are uniquely South African.
But while Nkomo is steadfast in his belief that most local ads lack a South African identity, he admits that what he refers to as “bongo-bongo” ads – which feature appropriated Ndebele design or a Basotho blanket – also do “not make adverts black”.