#Orchids&Onions: Glenlivet’s clumsy brand risk vs Airlink’s brand reward
Questionable ads
One which shocked me, although it didn’t seem to ruffle many feathers among Joburg people at the time, was a radio ad for a dreadful TV soapie called Tanamera, Lion of Singapore, which was running on an SABC channel in the early 1990s.
The ad’s soundtrack was of passionate sex, then the announcement “Singapore, 1940”, followed by some other occasions of frenzied coupling.
Each time came the breathless question: “Did the Earth move for you, darling?”
Finally – and I kid you not, it was “Hiroshima, 1945” and the question was, again, “Did the Earth move for you?”
The Japanese embassy in Pretoria at the time was horrified, but being Japanese, were too polite to complain. But as tackiness goes, that ad takes some beating.
Until, of course, The Glenlivet Whisky jumped in early last month and tried to link their 18-year-old blend with the courageous 1956 anti-Apartheid march in Pretoria, which has been marked since 1994 as Women’s Day.
This 75-second promo ad, shot in moody and period-correct black-and-white, featured actress Dineo Langa slugging a few shots down while contemplating images of the march and the women involved, including Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Lilian Ngoyi and Sophie Williams-de Bruyn.
Not unexpectedly, social media erupted in outrage, as did the ANC, which attacked the use of struggle icons to promote booze.
A social media user put her finger on it when she wrote: “So, we fought to become men…”
The ad was quickly taken down – but not before serious damage was done to the brand image.
The question asked – but still not answered – was: Who approved this? Many doubted that a woman would agree and some reckoned advertising’s “boy’s club” had struck again.
It was a clumsy – and utterly tasteless – attempt to link worldly success with alcohol which, sadly, is the way many South Africans do celebrate wealth.
The fact that this ad was conceptualised is bad enough, but that it got made and flighted speaks to a lack of any finesse in a brand which would like to link itself to an image of sophistication.
When your advertising does the opposite of what you intended, you’re going to get an Onion from me. Chase it with a slug of The Glenlivet 18-year-old…
Airlink low-pass
But the scrutiny and flak directed at the whisky brand pales into insignificance at what happened to Airlink immediately after its two Embraer aircraft made that low, low pass over DHL Stadium in Cape Town ahead of the Springbok-All Blacks match on Saturday.
It generated untold millions in publicity for the airline as anybody who had ever seen a picture of an aircraft piled on to social media to share their opinions.
And, almost immediately, South Africans showed that they were touched on their studios by the comments from abroad, which called the stunt reckless and which could have had tragic consequences, given that it was carried out over the heads of more than 56 000 spectators. They united in support of Airlink, leading some overseas to wonder if we really are mad as a nation. You get through Apartheid and then the ANC and then come and have a word with us…
While I accept Airlink’s explanation that the flyover was executed with the permission and guidance of both the civil aviation and air traffic authorities and done by six pilots who were its most experienced Captains, I still wonder if they perhaps went a bit too far. Because, let’s face it, after the amazing SAA Boeing pass at Ellis Park for the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, everything else has seemed a bit a lame.
I would also be interested to know whether the event was planned as a brand-building and marketing exercise because, if it was, then at least someone in the room should have foreseen there could be negative pushback. That alone should have urged acting on the side of caution. A little less flash and cowboy and there would have been very little reaction.
Also, you cannot deny, Airlink risked giving itself the name of being a cowboy, which, judging by the overseas comments – as well as some locally – was not what you need to build confidence in your brand.
I, on the other hand, take a different view – perhaps because I am an “avgeek” and love anything and everything to do with objects which fly. I almost became a pilot, when I was younger – but that’s another story.
For me, I would like to know that if, heaven forbid, something goes wrong in an Airlink aircraft, there are professionals like this up front. If they can go right to the edge in this scenario, they will be able to cope with other, more dangerous, ones.
That’s what South African pilots are like – and the fact that this country has had no fatal commercial accidents since the SAA Helderberg burned and crashed in 1987, backs that up. Just ask the 112 people who walked away without a scratch after their Nationwide Boeing 737 literally had an engine drop off a wing as it was taking off from Johannesburg in 2007. The pilots were the heroes – although guaranteed they would explain that it was merely doing what they were trained to do.
Overall, Airlink’s potential passengers are South Africans and the majority of them seem to be behind the airline. And the stunt as certainly raised its profile.
Those factors alone are enough to get it a marketing Orchid… whether it was intended or not on their part.
