Slow transformation of industry hinders true social reform in SA

Ngwale made his comments following on the industry's presentations to Parliament's communications portfolio committee during October. Attempts to create a unified approach to measuring black economic empowerment had been a failure, he said, and an industry transformation scorecard is being drawn up to assess black empowerment in the sector.

"A factor influencing government's response is the acceptability of empowerment deals by major advertising agencies concluded over the past 18 months. I believe many of these empowerment deals are lacking in transparency and genuine commitment to the ideals of true empowerment. Joint ventures or front companies have been used as expedient mechanisms to tackle huge government and parastatal tender opportunities. In these arrangements there is no room for skills transfer and the black 'partners' are not able to exercise influence over company policies and direction. They are simply 'rented' to maintain the status quo and to create the illusion that the industry supports the new order," says Ngwale.

"These token entities must be discouraged, the evaluation criteria should been designed so that such companies are automatically excluded from any pitching process on all governmental, parastatal and progressive private sector companies."

Ngwale is also critical of various government sectors, parastatals, seemingly progressive private sector companies and "Proudly South African" businesses that still insist on working with multinational agencies with questionable black ownership credentials. "Allowing such companies to participate in tender opportunities simply makes government, parastatals, and the private sector active collaborators. It also implies that these organisations have no faith in our black communication practitioners," he adds.

More than 10 years into our democracy and genuine black shareholding, employment equity, commercial equity and cultural empowerment are still sorely lacking - all of these are critical success factors for transformation. "As the advertising industry we play a critical role in helping to create a non-racial South Africa, perhaps more so than most industries because our work shapes ideas and forms opinions. At the heart of the debate the issue is: can diversity create a quality product that resonates with the broader population and does it lead to growth and make business sense," asks Ngwale.

"Our experience tells us that it does and that the critical success factors are that there must be a willingness and a commitment to change and the desire to optimise our cultural wealth. We still see a strong leaning to Eurocentrism from our local industry and this misses the point completely. Local advertising is simply not local enough - this is clearly evidenced in our associations, our awards and the stereotyped advertising that still emanates from locally based ad agencies. We should be embracing our afrocentrism and do justice to our linguistic, cultural and social diversity," he adds.

There seems to be a message to the South African public that South African is not good enough when it comes to advertising. "We still see foreign commercials with South African voice-overs because the mother account is held by an international office and falls in the lap of the local office when the brand enters SA. This is unacceptable. As South African agencies we need to be and can be creative. We are more than capable of creating groundbreaking work and putting measures in place that force us to be critical about our work and review constantly in line with our country's evolving socio-economic climate.

"There is little doubt that many of the best advertisements to emerge recently have been those that transcend racial and cultural barriers in delivering communication solutions. Diversity delivers quality, culturally empowered outputs can be broadly understood and this gives clients more reach for their advertising spend and a superior understanding of the markets in which they operate," he adds.

The Agency has a number of examples that exemplify this stance. The commercial for Telkom in which an elderly man's words 'Molo Mhlobo wami' transcended all barriers was quickly absorbed into local lexicon and independent research shows that it is still the most recalled advert by consumers today - more than two years after its last screening. Local leaders, including Nelson Mandela and President Mbeki have used the same words in public speeches, as have international figureheads such as US singing star Stella Adams.

The Agency's commercial for Vivo Breweries was a first for the SABC who were persuaded by The Agency to relax the 'pure language policy', enabling them to introduce slang or 'isi chamto' (meaning lingo) into the commercial and the words 'iyavaya eyethu' became everyday vocabulary.

Another gleaming example of our local ability, Ngwale points out, is the "I am an African" production for SA Tourism. As millions sat glued to the TV awaiting the outcome of the 2010 World Cup bid, The Agency were hard at work putting the final touches to the emotive celebratory announcement for their client, SA Tourism, based on one of President Mbeki's most powerful speeches. Just hours after the announcement, "I am an African", complete with winning announcement footage of SA's successful bid brought tears of pride and joy to South Africans all over the world.

"Within the industry, I believe that we have to acknowledge that our country has changed. The spending power will shift accordingly, as with each passing year, as more and more young black people become graduates and move into commerce and industry. South Africa will never be the same. The industry needs to acknowledge this and adapt its outlook. Staying with the 'Bantustan' philosophy of the 70's and trying to maintain it much longer within the industry will result in companies not keeping pace and ultimately falling by the wayside.

"The lack of true commitment to empowerment is detrimental to the growth and development of the advertising industry and the building of a truly non-racial society. The "ignorance" or "naiveté" of white people can no longer be an acceptable excuse for continuing racist practices. This is clearly evidenced in the fact that ad spend remains skewed towards the white SA market with ad execs failing to recognise the shifts in income distribution and therefore transformation of the SA society. Analysing the ad spend on mainstream black media such as YFM and Ukhozi FM, versus a predominantly white medium such as 5FM or Highveld, will prove this point. Transformation must be accelerated and we believe this can be achieved. Transformation is an urgent matter - the voluntary approach has not worked so perhaps legislation is required, or a "watchdog" organisation," concludes Ngwale.