'We should be looking inward, not outward'

"We're still fixated by eurocentrism," he says, "and that needs to change. The South African industry has such a vital role - and responsibility - in shaping public opinion and we need to use that power wisely. We should be proud of what we have and shout about it."

He gives the example of The Agency's emotive television commercial for Telkom in which an elderly man's words 'Molo Mhlobo' transcended all barriers and were quickly absorbed into local lexicon.
Local leaders including Nelson Mandela and President Mbeki have used the words in public addresses as have international figureheads such as US singing star Stella Adams. "The commercial was uniquely African and the enormous public take-up of the commercial clearly shows that we should be looking inward not outward," he said.

Ngwale also says the South African public is being duped into believing that local is not lekker when it comes to advertising. "Foreign commercials with South African voice-overs are rife and I believe that's simply unacceptable. Cost is not the issue here. We need to be clever about what we say and how we say it - and we need to be creative. We also need to be critical about our work and have systems in place to constantly review our work."

The Agency has long held the view that the industry needs to be clearly afrocentric and lead the way with several ground-breaking commercials. "For example, when we proposed our new commercial for Vivo Breweries, we had to persuade the powers-that-be at the SABC to relax the broadcaster's 'pure language policy'. This enabled us to introduce slang or 'isi chamto' (meaning lingo) into the commercial and the words 'iyavaya eyethu' once again became everyday vocabulary."

Similarly, The Agency's campaign for Pretoria that featured an animated statue of Paul Kruger talking to Nelson Mandela on a cellphone, transcended cultures and historical divides and embraced the new political framework. "It was leading-edge afrocentrism - and not only did it stimulate public debate which is a good thing, it also made the rest of the advertising industry sit up and take notice."