Loading ...Advertising is the ultimate classification industry. Only the apartheid government was as detailed and even they didn’t know what kind of cooldrink you preferred on weekends.
Tell me where you live, what you drive, how old you are, your home language, and I’ll tell you what products you like. Yep, we split people into neat groups that we know aren’t even 70% right, but two out of three isn’t bad and client service needs something to put on the brief.
This has given rise to a variety of cosseted industry terms. From the cute “Black Diamonds” – gold card-bearing, black, upper-middle class – to the euphemistic “Traditional Market” – poor, black, rural labourers.
Then there’s what I call the “Wit Diamantés” – the Afrikaans middle class with spending power. They’re the ones who keep Kurt Darren in denim shirts. As for upwardly mobile English and Afrikaans speakers, they demand instant gratification (what a distinctive trait!) and are highly “goal-oriented” (everyone else is lazy).
If all this sounds like a load of simplistic crap, imagine what it’s like being the creative forced to think within the confines of these “groups”. If you’re giving away prizes, the “suggestions” on the brief go something like this …
• The poor black traditional market? “Oh, they’re happy with anything. Just give them a T-shirt, they’ll be so grateful.”
• Afrikaans middle class? “A braai set or a caravan. They like outdoors stuff, but nothing too active.”
• Black Diamonds and white yuppies? “Laptops are always a good bet. Or sunglasses, but they have to be a premium brand.”
And when you’re selling toothpaste or airtime and have to target everyone? Cellphones. Everybody loves cellphones.
If it sounds like I’m taking a jaded swipe at my industry, I’m not. Advertising agencies are suppliers. We do what our clients ask. Some are open-minded and willing to play outside what they’ve been taught. That’s when you get work that captures the imagination, like the wonderful Coca-Cola “Brr!” campaign.
But some clients like boxes. They like putting people in boxes and then ticking those boxes. And sometimes these boxes are crude and ugly.
You can’t blame the advertising industry for treating people like morons. You can however blame us for subverting our desire to please consumers (yes, we really want to make you happy) and our creativity in order to pay the rent.
So I has a sewing machine and a landline and a DVD player, iz I a rich?
I love ad classifications, they are so fun. I know we’ve got to simplify things for ease of administration and all but ugh. It’s like the CPIX basket for ‘alternative’ thinkers (not so much alternative thinking as thinking of an alternative formula just like the CPIX basket but avec la difference).
I is obviously not rich now though. I just gave away the non-working sewing machine and the landline as I opt for mobile interwebs. So don’t be advertising that chicken at me now.
(Report abuse)