An Acumen Media Report over 7 days

The week started with KFC being accused of tribalism in a #HeritageDay ad and from there it just got stranger. If you’ve been living under a rock, you haven’t heard about that #ClicksAdvert. I have so many questions about this debacle that made our country come to a standstill.

The first thing I want to know if how it even got published, forget the racist connotations, the advert is unrelatable for all women. To the marketing teams at #Unilever, their Product Team, #TREsemme and to the #Clicks marketing team, your ad simply does not work. You see I have dry and brittle hair (mostly because in Sodwana there are not a lot of hair salons but there is a lot of sea water) and looking at the ad as an online consumer, I can’t find where I would click to see what hair product works for me. It’s quite simple, hair is complex. If you want to display products for various types of hair you have to include all of them, there is dry and brittle hair on my head but I can’t use products that are designed for an afro. They are simply different products, I can use a mousse or a product to add volume to my hair, if you used the same product on my colleague’s hair (who is black) you’d have a hot mess.

Secondly, of the 10-20 people that would have to sign off on that ad, did not one realise that firstly it’s not relevant and secondly that it is racially biased? My third question is for the EFF, what are you doing? Are you deliberately trying to destroy the next opposition of this country? Your message is clear IF you ever got to power, you would rule by fear and violence, and that fear and violence will be directed at us not the actual perpetrators. In the beginning of your “attack” you should have gone directly to #Unilever’s head office not to a set of #ClicksStores. Julius Malema, you are a marketing genius, you know how advertising is created and how to move a media campaign from zero to trending. To tell SA that the stores are the problem is an insult to our intelligence and extremely dangerous. Sure, you won after TREsemme was taken off the shelves and #Unilever gave away a bunch of sanitary towels, but your crew petrol bombed stores? That, Juju is just opportunistic electioneering.

It is obvious corporates are terrified of the EFF, wouldn’t it be awesome if rapists and looters were terrified of the EFF too? That may garner votes, but this time, we saw you Julius. Over a period of seven days the EFF’s reputation tanked to -90+ being worse than Clicks itself with -80%. They don’t care about women, just their crown, as they shoved a black female journalist, Nobesuthu Hejana, and then said they only “touched her” . They vomited vitriol at Thuli #Madonsela, a sterling example of a woman. The message to was clear, “black women, your crown matters, not the person who comes with it”.

In discussion with #Kathrada Foundation in what was a far more relevant conversation is why 26 years later are we still seeing racism pepper our advertising landscape, the answer is, we never addressed it in over two decades. We are a country plagued by systemic racism and we have done nothing to educate our nation on how to deal with bias and the wounds of our past. We can do better South Africa, we have to do better. May I PLEASE stop talking about Clicks now?

Here’s the ENCA interview if you would like to learn more:

Anyone who knows me knows that I have two great loves in my life in the political landscape #UncleKathy and #GeorgeBizos I sobbed this week as I saw the magnificent tributes to George the Giant’s life, they called him #UncleGeorge but for me he was always #AdvocateGeorgeBizos. As I write these lines there are tears down my cheeks because this man is a massive loss and a horrific reminder of how we have strayed from a path of justice and sacrifice for a greater good.

#Ramaphosa addressed the nation and said that “suspended with pay” is the order of the day, it is the labour law after all. Oh dear, that was not the card to play Mr President, if the labour law worked in government we certainly wouldn’t be in this mess. There are so many dismissible offences that you may only be left with a handful of your team if the labour laws worked. And having a 15-year suspension with pay sounds like a pretty good pay off for theft to me. By that time whatever you stole is so worthless that you could pay for it from your coin jar. Genius!
And then the President spoke about the economy and that awful number 51% which, in reality, is about 16%, not sure why anyone was surprised and why media chose to run with completely misleading headlines. Guys, we stopped working for five months, did you expect the economy to wait? The headlines should read, SA – hurry up and get back to work, we have a cashflow problem.

And then the Swiss decided that #CasterSemenya could not run without taking medication to slow her down. Anything here for you guys #Shivambu or #Ndlozi? Nah, Caster’s hair looks fine, forget about the rest of her and the complete injustice being served by a very white country. #SMH

#NathanielJulies murderers were in court again this week and it was revealed that this was not the first time for one of the perpetrators (read cop) he’s been convicted of a crime before. Tell me again about that labour law Mr President? And where the hell are you #Julius? I mean seriously! Are you kidding me? Are you saying black on black violence is ok? Because you’re never there unless it has social media legs and it contains race. You’re notorious for the patriarchy in your organisation as we see woman after woman slain in a month where we are meant to actually give a damn, and now we have seen a disabled man slain, and not a word from you but when theirs an opportunity to create violence and a hashtag you’re all over it like white on rice.

Here’s a tale that will show you how the opposition will rule our country, in little reported news #concourt will decide who runs #Tshwane years after our last election. So, when the DA or EFF step into the room one is left with a legacy of no rule at all. As for #Mashaba, he was there wasn’t he? Can a competent opposition leader please stand up?

In other news uBaba did not go to court because his cronies are in Dubai and of course Zoom doesn’t work in the courts… no wait… does it? Also #Gumede is “ready to fight” but that series will only show itself in December same as Zuma… Let’s see what Santa brings.

Talking about naughty children and presents, #AceMagashule was shipped off to Zimbabwe with the army after he was asked about #Waterkloof. He has called for reinforcements by the way, I don’t know what is real and what is fiction People ask me why I don’t read books. I don’t need too, I step from one genre of book to another as I read headlines.

#ZondoCommission was as riveting as ever as we learnt that #DuduMyeni not only pillaged SAA, but was “running” #Eskom from #Zuma’s house. This is the outcome of #Tsotsi’s testimony who later was shown to be a tsotsi as #Klein turned the tables with recordings showing that #Tsotsi was not merely following orders from JZ and Dudu, he was very much part of the pack. I’m cannot stress this enough, if you want to feel better about our country, watch those Advocates and the Chief Justice in action, you will feel pride with some frustration as the wheels of justice only work with slow and deliberate movement.

If you missed it, the #StateofDisaster was extended to 15th October, you were too busy dealing with your hair products right? Yip we are here for at least another month as the President hinted at #Level1 – Question, does level 1 then change to #LevelNormal after that or are we done once we hit the #Number1?

If you think we have issues, can I tell you that Trump has been nominated for a Nobel PEACE Prize because of the UAE and Israel deal. How does that even work? Did someone ask Palestine? And on the word “peace” I’ve never seem an America more divided under Trump, how can you nominate him for an award bestowed on the likes of #Mandela? TikTok has an embedded video of a man killing himself on #WorldSuicideAwarenessDay. Haibo guys #2020.

Listen, if you haven’t already, download, shazam or add to the #JerusalemaMovement #MasterKG thank you for being the only good thing to come out of 2020.