[Orchids & Onions] Rumble in Jungle ad is a knockout

Yet, nothing much has changed since the dawn of media: anything that informs and entertains is content.

And, when you can inform and entertain at the same time in your ad (to say nothing of getting across your clear marketing message), then you've arrived in content heaven.

What every ad person dreams of - although some brand managers don't often share the sentiment, because entertainment doesn't always equate to widgets sold - is that their ad will enrapture its audience to the extent that they share their pleasure with others.

That sort of sharing has become commonplace in the digital universe these days and the Holy Grail is to see your little marketing piece "go viral".

Advertising should be about getting across a commercial message, sure, but it should also be about holding that audience spellbound so that they willingly receive your pitch.

You don't often see that these days. But, on TV at the moment is that perfect storm of an ad- one that works both as advertising and as pure, riveting entertainment.

Sanlam has reprised the famous Rumble in the Jungle between iconic heavyweights Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa, in what was then Zaire, in 1974.

That was one of the greatest sporting encounters of all time... and one occasion when that overused superlative is, if anything, somewhat inadequate.

Ali played the classic waiting game; defend, defend, defend. His supporters - as shown by a Kinshasa man recalling the fight - began to despair: where was their champion?

But, having worn down Foreman, Ali went over to the attack - suddenly, and blindingly fast.

The floating like a butterfly was history, it was now time for the bee to sting.

Foreman got stung and he became history.

The metaphor for Sanlam, touting its investment savvy, is that Sanlam is going to be cautious and defend, defend, defend your investments... until the time is right. Then it is going to attack and multiply your wealth.

A great piece of advertising, well thought out by ad agency King James and well executed by Giant Films.

Orchids to Sanlam and its marketing partners.

(Click here for more, and to view the ad).

The Onion this week, for marketing ignorance, seasoned with bureaucratic arrogance, goes to the government of Mpumalanga.

That's right, folks: the administrators whose administration cannot fix potholes right across the tourist paradise (to say nothing of not being able to clean the public toilets at some tourist spots, despite charging significant entrance fees) spent a huge amount of public money in erecting a billboard at the entrance to the town of Graskop.

Festooned with the large portraits of various MECs, the billboard welcomes you to their province. The problem is that it has been up, without maintenance, for at least a few years.

The pictures are faded and the paper is peeling away.

You get a marketing Onion for failing to understand the importance of maintenance when it comes to outdoor advertising, and for producing a piece of communication that does nothing to showcase the wonder of your province, and everything to showcase your own egos.

And if pictures are worth the proverbial thousand words, then this billboard aptly and completely sums up this sad province.

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