Vodacom goes for gold

It's been 10 years since Francois de Villiers, then a creative director at FCB Johannesburg, created the two characters. Now executive creative director at sister agency, FCB Cape Town, De Villiers has been responsible for tickling the nation's funny bone in more than a dozen De Pinna-Bankole adventures.
 
The 60 second commercial celebrating South Africa's Olympic dreams opens on a low angle shot of a vast dramatic sky with the sound of the wind creating a sense of height. A young man steps into frame wearing only a Speedo, looking down. As the camera pulls back we see what looks like a dive board, come into frame. The motions he makes are those of a serious high diver, although his posture looks out of place. He's portly, sporting a really severe farmer's tan. He takes a deep breath and swallow dives down towards us. Even slow motion cannot improve his ungraceful movements. In a wide shot we see that the board is attached to the roof of a farmyard shed, it is dry and barren and there is no water in sight. His dive comes to a sudden stop as he unceremoniously disappears into a haystack.
 
Similar scenes follow - a meter-maid sternly checking pedestrians who, when the light changes, set off as Olympic walkers; a burly character in his bathroom mimicking cyclists by shaving his legs; and two women trying to find their balance in a kayak ... in a round farm reservoir. Finally, there's De Pinna out jogging. When he tries to impress two pretty girls by leaning against a wall to stretch his hamstrings, he pushes over the wall and is chased by two huge Dobermans.