[Orchids & Onions] Parties earn their stripes in poster war

© Vladimir Ceresnak – 123RF.com

The DA has two long, colour banners having a full go at the ANC. One says people should vote for the DA "for change that creates jobs", while alongside it, above a picture of our chuckling president, is the line: "More jobless under Zuma's ANC and counting..." Above it is what looks like a counter - clearly the unemployment counter.

Two posters, draped on adjoining corners of the building, face traffic exiting the CBD. What is quite smart, apart from the place (catching the going home traffic when people are perhaps in a more pensive, reflective mood), is the clever - but very cheeky - colours used. The DA side is in the party's colours, while the one raising the unemployment issue is in ANC colours.

Without casting any aspersions on either party or making any political comments, I think the DA's poster is good political marketing so it gets an Orchid.

However, the government (which is run by the ANC) is also not lying down when it comes to innovative OOH (Out of Home or Outdoor as it used to be known) advertising.

A massive, multi-storey banner has been hung down the side of the building housing the Gauteng government. It is not quite as well positioned as the DA one, because it faces north down Pixley ka Isaka Seme Street (formerly Sauer Street, where The Star building is located).

The problem is the street is a one-way, so the huge volumes of traffic using it will be facing the wrong way. That said, though, the poster is striking, not only in its size, but also its design and last, but certainly not least, for its message.

With wonderful warm pictures (a father and his child, hands reaching out to each and a young school pupil), the poster establishes an immediate human bond with the viewer.

Headed Ntirhisano, which means "We Care. We Act", the banner goes on to make a serious commitment to "working with people to resolve service delivery problems". The way in which that will happen, the government says, is a three-stage process: Respond. Resolve. Grow.

Placed on behalf of the Gauteng provincial government as well as the major municipalities in the province, the banner is, thankfully, much, much better than some of the neo-Stalinist, cult-of personality government ads we have seen in newspapers.

Whoever put this up understands marketing and understands that the people of this province are the customers of the government, however much they may be a captive audience.

It is a positive statement. Whether it will be followed up remains to be seen and we hope the catchy slogan of "We Care. We Act" doesn't return to bite the government in its nether regions; much as Standard Bank's "Simpler, Better Faster" did because it became the rallying cry of disgruntled customers in endless bank queues...

The banner serves a dual purpose, too, of showing that when government does help people, it is a government run by the ANC. All's fair in politics, after all. So, Gauteng authorities, you get a marketing Orchid from me.

I look forward to more of this type of work, harnessing our homegrown talent for our homegrown issues. Race is the hot-button issue at the moment and, well aware I will take some heat myself, I can't help but wonder whether the fact that the advertising industry is still largely lily-white and untransformed in this country has something to do with the fact that our people are drifting further apart.

Let me explain. I have said many times - and I am certainly not the first to do so - that advertising can play an influential role in the development of a society, and particularly one like ours coming out of the ashes of a race-based system. The more we start seeing each other as normal people, with normal fears, desire and aspirations, the quicker will those artificial, all-in-the-mind barriers of colour come down.

But that hasn't really happened. Almost 22 years on, where are the voices of the African creatives? Why are there so few African executive creative directors in our ad agencies? Where are the real South African ads, featuring black people in non-stereotypical poses?

It's not only local ad agencies which are part of this problem, it's also the multinational brands, which, to save money, are using their "international" TV spots and even print executions. These almost always show white people. Black faces, ironically, have become fewer on TV screens during the ad breaks. And, when poor, angry people look at TV, they get their prejudices confirmed.

I know I shall get hate mail for this, but if we want this country to work, we have to have the difficult debates - and sometimes whites (especially those in the ad business, bru, who proclaim themselves as liberal lefties) need to look around them.

Non-racialism is a lot more than trying to sing the national anthem or about wearing black-white-white waistcoats, as did people at a well-known Joburg agency in 1994 (black and white on a zebra, bru, one can't survive without the other, geddit?)

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