ANC TV ad: Hot or Not?
Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by Jonathan Cherry in Advertising
We spoke to somebody recently who said; "that advertising shows weakness". If that were even remotely true, what does that say about the ANC's position as the first South African political party to flight a TV ad?
Remaining completely politically neutral, we think the ANC's strategy is a great one.
The ad is emotive, the story compelling, the message smacks of humility and for the people that it's meant to target – it sells a strong reason to vote ANC.
As a brand, they understand their audience intimately and this is a cracking trump card to play. It's not the most creative or award-winning piece of work you're ever going to see, but for the results it's sure to deliver – one of the best ads so far of 2009.
15 Responses to “ANC TV ad: Hot or Not?”
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Daniel Hoffmann-Gill
03. Mar, 2009
*cough*
Not hot and not at all convinced, it’s fey and pandering to the old heart strinngs but the reality of ANC failure to help ‘the poors’ will hopefully be the damning nail in the coffin for a party that has done little to enable South Africa to be all it can be.
Cherryflava
03. Mar, 2009
Reality and advertising are seldom mutually inclusive. The emotive stringed-instrument backing track – the old man’s story – the ‘give us another chance to realise our dream’ copywriting all combine together in a perfect storm of marketing propaganda that’s very clever.
Now that Carl Niehaus isn’t around to do the spindoctoring anymore – it’s a clever move to employ the next best thing to sway opinion…a TV ad.
The reality however is obviously very far from this utopian ideal, but the vast majority of the ANC’s huge electorate will be heavily swayed by this move and will deliver the result that is intended by the work.
Vaughn
03. Mar, 2009
If they cut out Zuma at the end it would work a lot better.
Tracy
03. Mar, 2009
If the ANC were as good as their advertising, I’d vote for them.
Wes
03. Mar, 2009
Yeah I agree with Vaughn, I was loving the ad before Zuma had to have his say.
Talya Goldberg
03. Mar, 2009
It’s been reported that Ogilvy was paid R10 million for that ad, so the ANC were grossly over charged. All the people featured in the ad are paid professional actors (even JZ.) I thinks is so transparently false, people who are living in shacks and will never see this from the comfort of their own homes know that these are blatant lies. Yes they have provided housing, but organizations like Habitat For Humanity have built just as many, if not more and they have the systems and structures in place to do so. Don’t want to get into a whole political debate, but I don’t think the general public is going to receive this ad well, its too old-school, COPE is offering something young, “fresh”, the new-guard, think this will fall flat in comparison.
Loved this comment on YouTube “Chickens, goats and cows – at least we have our priorities sorted.”
UPrinting Online Printing
04. Mar, 2009
Sad to say, most social medias are pretty not convincing and ANC ad is one of them.
Mfisto
04. Mar, 2009
It was a pretty good ad until they showed Zuma’s face
I hope there aren’t too many people out there that can be swayed by this kind of thing :/
Cherryflava
04. Mar, 2009
Talya – R10 million? Hopefully that’s for the whole election campaign and not just the TV production. Otherwise an outrageous figure.
Poor Ad
04. Mar, 2009
This is the crappest ad I’ve ever seen. I don’t even want to know how much the ANC spent producing this ad, or how much the party will spend on television advertising rates when the flight it on TV. All I know is that I’ve lost ALL respect for Ogilvy Johannesburg for producing such a load of rubbish. It’s poorly executed and isn’t convincing at all. The minute I finished watching it I said “what a load of k#k”. I will never vote for these corrupt “leaders” – they make we want to vomit every day (and immigrate to a land far away).
Kriya
04. Mar, 2009
So they going to promote their entire election campaign based on the success attained by the Mbheki government yet they don’t think he did a good job. Wow, yet another piece of evidence as to how hypocritical they are.
Bob
04. Mar, 2009
Um Wow, if we’ve achieved so much in the past 15 years with the ANC, imagine how much we could achieve with a competent government…
Cherryflava
04. Mar, 2009
The other option for Ogilvy was perhaps a sequel to the famous Jacob Zuma Pronto condom ad
Has a powerful moneyshot at the end.
H.Graiser
10. Mar, 2009
“Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.” plato
My two cents is that despite how comfortably they seem to sit together there is something fundamentally uncomfortable about mixing politics and advertising. I always imagined the best way to vote would be behind a veil of brand ignorance, Letting the policy overpower the brand and not the other way. but we’re not prone to promote logical decision in this world sadly.
Zuma; Obama etc… are our Rock stars, and in that case, congratulations on the music video !……sigh
Pierre
24. Mar, 2009
I do believe that a DA campaign has already been running…
Last night at 22h20 at a service station convenience store I overheard this conversation between a black female shop attendant and a 70+ white man. Girl: “so when are you buying your Lotto ticket” Man: “I’m tired of the lotto, always 2 numbers and a bonus, 2 numbers and a bonus..Hate it….So, who are you voting for?” Girl: “Can’t vote I don’t have an ID book” Man: “Me neither. It takes years to get your ID and they give you one without a picture. The queues are too long…Are you going to vote for ZUMA?” Girl: “Yes. Zuma” Man: (shocked) “Zuma? No he’s crazy man. You can’t vote for him” Girl: “Tell me. Who should I vote for then?” Man: (hesitant)”….Zille”
Girl: Aagh. I do not have a house. That white woman has a big house. What can she do for me?” Man retreats with his pack of Stuyvesants and starts to irritate to the petrol attendants outside. Man: “Are you voting for Zuma?” He does not raise a response.
This little cameo is South African politics in a nutshell. And this is the level at which the outcomes are determined.