It's great to see South African Companies are able submit so many entries. It goes some way in answering a question thats been nagging me for some time. I'm black, have a good business, buy nice clothes, have a nice car, all of that. Go on Holiday, fly regularly, and hang around, mainly with other young black professionals, who share similar interests, live in the same suburbs, drive german cars etc. In Short, we are LSM8-10. Yet the industry keeps pitching to white people. Like that disgusting NEDCOR add-about "those people" middle aged white people who are living these wonderfull lives. All Around me, black people are buying expensive products, yet very few commercials reflect that. We are the new middle class, and have bought our way out of the "emerging" lable. Its true that back in the day many black people did aspire to living like whites, and so to live in a "white" suburb, was considered an achievement. Driving a car supposedly intended for whites was cool, but God, we have gone so far past that.

To see commercials that still appear to be centered around that perception is offensive. I understand the industry is having difficulty transforming itslef, but that cannot be a justification for the latest SUNAIR Commercial. "How the other half flies". Now i assume that someone who clears a commercial for broadcast will be reasonably intelligent, and will have some knowledge of current affairs. During last year, President Thabo Mbeki was castigated for his "two worlds" speech. He said South Africa was made up of two worlds-one white, and privileged, and he other black, and poor. White South Africans called him racist etc. He dropped the line, and then some idiot produces a tv commercial about "how the other half flies." And it shows a group of white business people checking in, and the getting on a plane. I think i may have spotted a black guy in the background-and the image us treated to give a washed out white, halo-ish look. Now, granted, very few black people are able to fly business class, but thats no reason to rub our faces in it. I understand whites still make most of the ads, because of a "supposed" lack of black talent(which we all know is hogwash-i work in the industry), but can you at least try not to be offensive. To talk about the other half, and show a group of very happy, clearly wealthy South Africans fuels the perception that White People dominate the economy and want to keep it that way. This country doesn't need that, and any thinking person would have picked this up. I can only imagine they live with the "other half", where blacks dont have money, or pride, and dont take offence at such statements. A news organisation i worked at once sent a senior management person on a cultural sensitisation course for two weeks, because this former Broderbonder said he knew what blacks we like. I think all white ad execs is this country, both halves, should do the same.
WHich eventually brings me back to where i started. Its clear many ads are made with cannes in mind. Local consumers, and their sentivities be damned.
Faizel Cook
Director
Cut to Black Media
LSM 8