Leaping to conclusions

1 Apr 2008

Headed ‘Fantasy Isle', text in the April 2008 issue of The Property Magazine announced the proposal by a Dubai-based ‘mega-consortium', Al Flipoor, to construct a springbok-shaped^* island that would extend 12km out to sea from a “currently vacant site in Camps Bay”. And in keeping with the theme of patriotism, the guidelines advised that exterior paint-colour options for residences “will be centred on the colours of the SA flag”...

click to enlarge

That was probably the giveaway to savvy readers that this was a joke; and, of course, ‘Al Flipoor' is an anagram of ‘April Fool'. Nevertheless, within one week of distribution of the magazine, the publishers report that the web address given ‘for more information' had received over 1500 visits and letters had started flowing in.

Tony Vaughan, MD of Media Nova, publishers of The Property Magazine, said, “It started out as a bit of fun. When we saw the ‘artist's impression' of the island that our art director Wayne Jordaan mocked up, we knew we'd get a good response. But it's a turn up for the books to discover that not only do our readers read every word in the magazine, as we've always known, but that they also act on what they read there.

“In the first week, 1500 readers followed the link to the website. What's even more incredible is that while 1200 unique hits came from SA, the next five highest locations for those who accessed the site were the UK (62), the US (32), Namibia (12), Australia (11) and the UAE (9). Other origins of interest were Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Norway, Brazil, Italy, India, Turkey, Taiwan, Austria, China, New Zealand. That's amazing.”

The April edition of The Property Magazine also has a serious side, as it is the magazine's first Green issue.

^*Dubai boasts a palm-shaped island project that has increased that country's coastline 10 times.

See www.springbokisland.co.za.