MTN owned all cellphone adverts before and during the Soccer World Cup. So it seemed like Vodacom, Virgin Mobile and CellC took a break,
Now however, Vodacom hit back with their Daddy Cool advert that makes absolutely no sense to me at all. But it’s so much fun that I always look up from whatever I’m doing when the advert comes on tv.
Vodacom seldom fail where their marketing campaigns are concerned – their service is another story.
And this one is another one that works. If you consider that they’ve been quiet of late.
The Pretoria courts ruled what we all knew since our mothers first gave us our first tennis biscuit. Only the biscuit with the fat little man on it could be deemed a real tennis biscuit.
The pretender to the throne, called GM Patel Foods cc, tried to pass off their own coconut biscuit at the real Mccoy, to no avail.
Nation Foods which holds the trademark to the recipe for tennis biscuits as well as the packaging, have been baking this delicious treat since 1911!
The trade mark is a square with a flower design on the outer edges.
In the centre are two rectangles with a third curved rectangle, slightly wider than the other two between them.
The rectangles are blank.
The applicant’s package has, on about two-thirds of it, a white background on which there is a representation of a baker in the top left corner and the name Bakers in prominent black letters.
Apart from the word TENNIS boldly written in red letters, the words “The Original” appear in gold letters.
The packaging also has written on it the words “Made with real butter, real syrup and real coconut”.
Just typing this has made me want a tennis biscuit or three – the real one, mind you!
We knew Nando’s wouldn’t cave to threats from Julius Malema and the ANCYL after they threatened militant action if the ads weren’t pulled.
After their meeting with Malema and co, Nando’s promised to remove the offending ad and did so, but replaced it with another one starring the same puppet.
Last night Nando’s started airing a new advert with puppet Julius blurred and his voice distorted as usually happens on actuality or news programmes when they want to protect someone’s identity.
This time there is no mention of the name Julius.
Senior brand manager of Nando’s Lara Easthorpe explained that the initial intention of the marketing campaign was not to poke fun of Julius Malema, but wanted to bring a light-heartedness to the elections.
Which they did.
We were talking about the advert at work around the coffee table on Friday and everyone was pretty much amused by it.
Julius Malema and the ANCYL have just given the adverts a much longer air-life than it otherwise would have had.
Well done to Nando’s for coming up with the ads in the first place and then continuing with it under pressure from someone who is obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed!
