Picture perfect directions

"Net#work BBDO's creative team Mariana O'Kelly and Gary du Toit were tasked with coming up with a commercial that would best show how the new technology could enhance Cell C user's lives.

Du Toit says: "We didn't want to make another handset ad. We wanted to make an ad that illustrated the benefits of the technology and not just the technology itself. Too often South Africa is depicted in an overly sanitised, cheesy, picture postcard way. That's not the South Africa most of us know."

We also wanted the ad to be authentically South African," says O'Kelly. "With overseas cellular companies coming into South Africa, we wanted to show that Cell C is a company with a genuine understanding of South Africans."

Shot on location in downtown Johannesburg and in Soweto, the advert trails a young black 'dude' on his way home taking photos of typical township landmarks with his cell phone.

His journey gives viewers a real sense of black township life with scenes of taxi rank signs, street dancers, market stalls selling cow's heads and graffiti on walls. The ad cuts to his friend coming off the Metro train with a look of disorientation. He receives an sms with the photo directions and he confidently follows the same path.