Courage and humour rev the engine for consumers

There is a similar thing happening in the motor industry globally, as makers wriggle to meet looming stringent exhaust emissions regulations in various markets.

The way many have gone is to downsize the engines of their cars, adding turbochargers to make up for the loss in power of a small engine. This promises an optimal balance between power and economy - and enables carmakers to bring down the average fuel consumption of their model ranges to meet the emissions targets.

However, when selling cars to petrolhead enthusiasts, the big challenge has been to convince them that less is really more and there is a substitute for large-capacity engines.

Not many companies, though, have tackled the issue in the head-on way Ford has. Of course, it is true Ford has one of the prime objects of discussion among petrolheads - a tiny, three-cylinder 1.0-litre turbo engine.

Barely bigger than that in the original Mini of the 1960s and 1970s, this little powerplant has been put in some of Ford's mid-range cars, like the Focus.

And that is where the debate is - can this little engine (despite its slew of engineering awards overseas) cope with a large car body?

Ford's TV ad deals exactly with this in a humorous way, with two dudes seen driving across the Nelson Mandela Bridge in a Focus, discussing famous errors in judgment - like the IBM computer exec who opined that the entire world would not need more than five or six computers.

Then there were the others who judged that telephones and radio - not to mention cars themselves - would merely be passing fads.

They come to the car itself and the passenger is gobsmacked when he hears about the size of the engine... but - see how many people underestimated many things in the past, is the message.

Ford says clearly: don't be afraid of this engine, don't underestimate it, don't risk being on the wrong side of history.

Great ad. Great bravery in tackling a brand attribute other carmakers seem to prefer keeping quiet about.

Orchid to Ford and its Blue Hive creative hub.

© Dingming Zhang – 123RF.com

This is neither an Orchid nor an Onion, just a sad observation about the state of South Africa today.

Normally, over the Freedom Day period, corporates and smaller advertisers fall over each other to come up with the best tribute to the success of our Rainbow Nation.

This year, not so much.

It was hard to find more than a smattering of print ads wishing the country well.

In past years, you would almost have been overwhelmed by the emotional and patriotic outpourings of ad agencies and their clients.

Some of the best of them would bring a tear of joy to the eye - and remind us how extraordinarily fortunate we had been to have experienced a miracle.
Today, it seems there isn't a lot to celebrate and some brands may, understandably, be a bit gun-shy.

They don't want to be seen to be engaging in too much sunshine marketing, lest they be accused of ignoring reality and cosying up to the government.

It's also proof that the advertising industry can be society's mirror.

I have said many times advertising can work well if it is tied to current events and good copywriters should be like good news editors, with their fingers on the pulse of what is happening in the country.

But, sometimes, in the rush to take advantage of what is perceived as a "hot topic", brands and their ad agencies can go horribly wrong.

That's what happened this week, with one of the most tasteless ads I've yet seen.

A KwaZulu-Natal company called Drizit - which specialises in cleaning up hazardous spills - took out a full-page newspaper ad to take advantage of the interest around xenophobia and King Goodwill Zwelithini's alleged role in sparking it.

With a picture of the king in full regalia, the headline reads: "If only he'd called Drizit to clean up this mess!"

The paragraph below reads: "Since 1975, our qualified Emergency Spill Response teams have been on standby 24/7 to respond to any chemical, oil, fuel or other hazardous material spillages and are fully equipped to clean up and remediate all polluted areas as quickly as possible, thereby minimising the impact on the environment."

This deserves an Onion for tastelessness not because it attacks the king - I am no fan either of this unelected, non-taxpaying parasite - but because, Drizit, people actually died in the attacks.

That's not funny and it is not clever to associate brutality and murder with your brand.

The point that seems to have escaped you is that, no matter how good you are, you can't clean up xenophobia and you can't bring back the dead.

I sometimes worry about people in authority who could sanction such an ad, well aware not only that it would inflame the anger of the king's subjects (and a KwaZulu-Natal company should know this better than most), but that it could be seen as a political statement.

Would I be far wrong to think that the people who conceived and approved this ad thought that the views of everybody around their northern suburbs dinner tables reflected the broader opinion of the country?

And lest I be accused of being anti-white (again), let me sketch an alternative full-page ad.

This would have a picture of the confetti of plane crash wreckage strewn over a mountain in the French Alps. The copy would read: "If only Germanwings had called us to clear up their mess!"

You see what I mean? That would have been tasteless, just as the xenophobia reference was.

Confirming that he and his ad agency (Headlines Advertising, by the way) don't have a clue is the comment by Drizit managing director Greg Parton, who says: "It was not defamatory. Clearly, it's just about promoting my company's 'clean up the mess', and it's just a play on words, really - the xenophobic attacks, the play on words around that. That's what my company does - it cleans up spillage, that's what we do. That's what we call a mess. Nothing more than that was meant."

If the ad was seen as an attack on Zwelithini, "it was clearly misinterpreted entirely", he said. (Ironically, this is exactly what the king claimed.)

Parton, you and Headlines Advertising need to be reminded that, apart from your lack of taste, you don't know Rule Number One in advertising: If it has to be explained or it can be misinterpreted, it is bad advertising.

A smelly, toxic Onion for you. Try to clean that one up.

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