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Outsurance responds to its ‘racist' Father's Day ad, blames junior employee

19 Jun 2017

NEWSWATCH: Outsurance's Father's Day advert was ill-conceived by a 'young' staff member and branded as 'racist' for featuring predominantly white fathers, “with numerous Twitter users lambasting the insurer and threatening to cancel their policies” (see Twitter feed below), arguing that the campaign wasn't representative of South Africa's demographics, reports Kyle Venktess from Fin24.

A screenshot of the Outsurance Father’s Day ad. Image credit: IOL.co.za

Captioned ‘Happy #FathersDay to all amazing dads out there’, the social media ad portrayed mostly white fathers (only one black father) spending time with their kids to celebrate Father’s Day, suggesting that only white men make good fathers.

Outsurance apologised in a tweet: “We apologise for our Father's Day video. It did not appropriately represent SA's demographics. It was an unintentional oversight.”

Providing further comment, Peter Cronjé, head of marketing at the insurance company, blamed a junior staff member. “This advert was created by one of our junior ladies in the social media department and I believe she made an innocent mistake when she created and posted this video.

“This is the first time we have had trouble with one of our ads because we make sure that they are representative of the country’s demographics,” Cronjé told The Star. Khaya Koko from Independent Online reports.

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