In a press conference called to launch the advertising industry's Black Economic Empowerment Scorecard for comment, including the latest research, the ACA issued a broadside at the marketing industry with its additional announcement of plans for a new advertising award to "give Loeries a better name", or supplant the annual Loeries showcase with something 'better, more creative, more representative, and that is a true showcase of creative work while giving something back to the industry'.
The full details of the new award proposal and the ACA BEE Scorecard will be carried in Bizcommunity.com on Thursday, 25 November.
Gerry Human, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Johannesburg, made the presentation. He said the ACA was fully representative of the advertising industry and that the industry would no longer enter or support the Loeries as currently owned and run by the MFSA. "We simply won't enter and we simply won't go," he said bluntly.
In a nutshell, the ACA proposes that new advertising awards be run as a Section 21 committee, not for profit, and that all profits be ploughed back into the industry for development. The other highlights are:
"We need to return the Loeries to the advertising industry... whatever they're called," said Human.
ACA outgoing-chair, Nunu Ntshingila, was quick to point out that the MFSA would be invited to be part of the team to run the Section 21 company, consisting of the Creative Circle, Commercial Producers, ACA, Café and Think, that would run the Section 21 committee.
In what is an obvious chasm between the advertising and marketing industries, the ACA's chair, Ntshingila said there had been "time" to meet with the MFSA and brief them regarding the new awards plan.
The MFSA, in an attempt to pacify the advertising industry, hastily convened a series of "post mortems" with MFSA board members and various stakeholders, in an overdue attempt to garner industry opinion.
In the meeting with the media last week, the media and marketing press, including Bizcommunity.com, informed the MFSA that:
Basically the media viewpoint tallies with the broad creative industry view that Loeries 2004 were a disaster never to be repeated and that drastic action is necessary to rescue the creative awards.
The ACA is to be applauded for stepping up and taking a bold stand, and it is to be hoped that there will be industry consensus to revive this industry showcase for the industry, by the industry.
