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.

But from out of seemingly nowhere Mtn have come up with the Ayoba Yoba series of adverts on radio and tv.

They’re catchy and very noticeable and people are using the phrase on Facebook and in conversation.

I even asked my Xhosa speaking colleague what the phrase Ayoba Yoba means. He did a little dance and said there is no direct translation…

But it’s a joyful partying spirit he said.

Suddenly Vodacom’s adverts are looking blah.

Even their giving away a million rand a week – or whatever they’re doing – just doesn’t seem very exciting. Except to that 1 person winning.

Plus as a Vodacom customer they are just getting on my nerves with their repeat sms ads.

A man walks into a bar orders a Savannah while the barman plays a small banjo.

A monkey appears takes the Savannah and walks off.

The man tells the barman, “Do you know your monkey just stole my Savannah? ”

The barman replies, “If you hum it, I’ll play along.”

Classic!

I laugh every single time.

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!

According to IOL.co.za:

 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!

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!

We are arrived there at around 10.30am.

Walking into the mall, we saw Wimpy packed with diners having breakfast – more so than usual.

We went around to the take-away counter and was greeted by a friendly cashier who ordered our coffee – with some other voters’  standing in line.

Even though they were dealing with a line of diners waiting to be seated as well has an already full restaurant, staff remained patient and friendly.

A big ups to Wimpy for delicious coffee and great service.

Their marketing campaign brought much goodwill to the Wimpy brand, something which other brands will probably try to emulate next time.

Nando’s has their ‘voters roll’ roll – but it somehow doesn’t have the same effect as a free coffee.

So the extensive newspaper, web and radio marketing campaign that had the internet buzzing for many days turned out to be for Mrs Balls Chutney.

Tonight during 7de Laan the advert aired – the first time I saw it on tv.

The advert mentioned that the website had 360 000 hits, 13 mentions in the news and was Googled more times than Joost!

The Joost bit I doubt!

It came as a bit of a disappointment, I must admit. I expected the campaign to be for something more edgy or funnier.

To each his/her own, I guess.  It seems others who viewed the video on YOUTUBE actually liked it and see it as uniquely South African.

The tag line was something about not changing something that worked.

Go to www.nsep.co.za for a video of the advert and make up your mind.

So far it seems that Unilever has paid for the advert to be placed in the Sunday Times as well as on radio stations in Cape Town and Johannesburg, as speculated by toomuchcoffee.co.za.

June, a commenter on this blog suggested that www.oscuro.co.za, probably an advertising agency registered the website www.nsep.co.za.  Oscuro’s website alludes to an upcoming marketing campaign.

Aden Thomas’ show on Capetalk put the two together this morning and speculated that the marketing campaign could very likely be for AXE, the men’s deodorant.

Apparently AXE has done something similar in Belgium before.

Now this is something I can believe. 

AXE have been very prominent recently, doing all sorts of interesting marketing campaigns – throwing parties, etc. and their adverts are always a bit quirky.

It will however be interesting to see if they can keep the buzz going long enough for us to care about who the originator is.

This morning on Redi Direko’s show on Capetalk and 702, Alex Jay called in. He quickly mentioned that his radio station – Highveld, I think – spent three hours following up and concluded that the ad is a scam. They gathered that the aim was to get people to call the 086 number and resulting in the anonymous advertiser making big bucks.

That theory doesn’t wash with me at all. Share call is just that – the caller and callee both get charged for the call equally.

Later in the same show a blogger from toomuchcoffee.co.za called in. He mentioned to Redi that he had tip from someone in Cape Town who linked the advert to Unilever.

I really am trying to link that advert to anything Unilever might offer. Soap, washing powder, bathroom cleaning products? That is one big stretch.

Cherryflava thinks it might a political party – Congress of the People or the Democratic Alliance.

This one sounds more likely. Although does COPE have enough money to advertise? I’m leaning towards this one as a second choice to Amor placing it to get her husband, Joost’s attention.

Whoever is behind the advert – I hope they have a plan to follow it up.

They sure have our attention!

Restaurant owners, shopping malls etc. are being encouraged to call the NSEP hotline to get a pack so they can correct the images on their restroom doors.

This morning Capetalk had a 30 second advert running on their radio station, directing listeners to the website and the 086 number that leads to an answer service and nothing else.

First off, the advert notes that the intention of the marketing campaign is to have the skirts lenghtened of ladies featured on public toilet doors.

Seeing that April Fool’s jokes are only intended for 1 April, speculation is rife as to who placed the advert and why?

Obviously someone with lots of money to pay for such an elaborate marketing, not much sense or both.

The candidates are:
1. Joost van der Westhuizen – to get Rapport and the tabloids to focus elsewhere.
2. Jacob Zuma – same as above.
3. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) – they have our, the public’s, interest at heart.
4. Amor Vittone – to keep Joost out of the ladies restrooms.
5. Thabo Mbeki – he’s bored and likes to confuse us.

Who knows why anyone would use a national marketing campaign to go to these lengths to get our attention, but they have…for a few minutes. 

If it is a marketing campaignwith a future pay off,  I can’t see how anyone is going to benefit from this nonsense.