Pendoring call to enter launches

Judging takes place 14 - 15 August and the sharpest creators of Afrikaans advertising will be crowned at Vodaworld, Midrand on 18 September.

This year's Pendoring campaign claims that if Afrikaans is treated shabbily as an advertising language, its brilliance will fade - and it might eventually lead to its demise.

Explains Pepe Marais, executive creative director of Joe Public, "If a garden is neglected and not watered properly, it will eventually become barren. The same applies to a language or culture. This is the reasoning behind this year's Pendoring pay-off line: ‘Don't neglect the language' (Moenie die taal afskeep nie), followed by the clarion call to: ‘Create in Afrikaans and prevent our most beautiful language from losing its lustre' (Skep in Afrikaans en keer dat ons mooiste taal sy glans verloor)."

Afrikaans icons

To bring home the message that the language and its users could eventually suffer if it doesn't get its rightful attention from advertisers and marketers, the creative team used well-known Afrikaans icons.

For the consumer campaign of print and radio advertisements, well-known Afrikaans TV news reader Riaan Cruywagen happily obliged to act as a waiter in a steakhouse, while the industry campaign centres on much-loved Afrikaans TV characters such as Haas Das and Bennie Boekwurm, who in no uncertain terms show what can happen if the language is neglected.

An online game aimed at interaction with, and participation by, the advertising fraternity also forms part of the 2009 Pendoring campaign. Participants are invited through emailers to test their Afrikaans competency (Afrikaansgeit) at "standard, higher and honours level".

Every correct answer results in question master and “hero” Haas Das growing healthier and more vibrant, but with each wrong answer he withers away. Participants, who correctly answer all 10 questions in the shortest possible time, stand a chance of winning a prize.

Afrikaans, the “hind teat”

"There is no doubt that Afrikaans advertising has been relegated to the hind teat, despite the fact that Afrikaans speakers still constitute a strong market segment with considerable spending power. By showing how this could affect Afrikaans speakers, their language and culture, we want to encourage marketers and advertising creators anew to reap the benefits of original Afrikaans advertising to a sought-after target market," concludes Marais.

For more, go to www.pendoring.co.za.