Let me state right upfront that I really do have better things to do than write about THAT poster. Four strategies (one of them for a campaign to celebrate our Constitution, which I’m excited about because it’s the closest yet I’ll get to putting the theory I explored in my thesis into practice). Various commissioned pieces, one of which is due tomorrow. A painting for a friend involving a black crocodile and the Joburg skyline (it being the year of the dragon and all).
But no, here I am writing about that DASO poster campaign. Firstly, hats off to them for getting as much PR mileage as they have. Already it has turned into a meme along the lines of “tendencies” and “don’t touch me on my studio” (this poster was released as the second ad, but turned out to be a parody). In my line of work, we’d be excited about all the bang for buck and try to fix a Rand value to all of this free advertising, though we’d want to know how many members or votes all of this buzz actually translated into.
Not a DASO poster
Now I want to settle down and look at what is actually going on in this rather badly art directed piece of communication (did they buy that photo off Getty Images, I wonder?) Is this South Africa’s Benetton? It could be, since it effectively dates from roughly the same era.
First observation: the response to this poster is less about the image itself and more about the advertiser claiming ownership of it and what it represents. For argument’s sake, let’s imagine that same rather naff composition of beefy white oke with ebony goddess in an ad for a condom brand. Pair it with some suitably bland brand statement such as “For when the moment feels right…” (nudge nudge wink wink blah blah fishpaste).
The ad is then not about race; the race of the couple is a casting decision. Advertisers have budgets to stick to, and South Africans still assume that ads are not aimed at them if they feature people who aren’t the same skin colour as them, so they’re always trying to find cost-effective ways of being representative. Usually this takes the form of a suitably ethnically ambiguous but good-looking coffee-coloured girl next door. So, if this had been a condom ad, some people would have been offended by the shocking notion of a mixed race couple, but it would have gone unremarked.
But nobody feels neutral about the DA. And by taking ownership of this image, by drawing attention to race, and attitudes to race, in this way, they are challenging the viewer to respond. A lot of people have responded, not necessarily in a way that the advertiser might have wanted. If anything, they’ve reinforced stereotypes that it would be in their interests to debunk: their self-righteousness, the prissiness, the obdurate refusal to engage with race in a way that acknowledges the structures embedded in society, and not just individual choice.
This poster positions the viewer, implying that
a. you would find this image unusual or offensive in some way which
b. implies that you are excessively aware of race and
c. you require education in the principles of non-racialism by the DA.
No wonder some people are as offended as they are.
Given that this is all about causing offence while simultaneously not being offended, I’m trying to work out who this poster is aimed at. The verkramptes nursing the apartheid attitudes they keep under their mattresses? African nationalists? Clearly, some people are genuinely offended, though in this case I suspect it’s the opportunistic boarding of a passing bandwagon. I last looked twice at an interracial couple in about 1996 (granted, as some people pointed out, since the couple is nude as far as we can tell, can we expect a nudist future filled with smoking hot babes?). Though I’ve been in an interracial relationship, and I was aware of the stares we got at the coffee shop in Brightwater Commons, mixed race couples have been legal since shoulder pads were in fashion and George Michael was still straight. Maybe this image is shocking in Putsonderwater; in Pinelands or Parkwood it’s just naff.
Then there’s the copy. Imagine if they’d written “In our future, you wouldn’t look twice” instead of “In OUR future, you wouldn’t look twice.” The first version states its piece quietly and then leaves. In the second, they’ve taken explicit ownership of a colour-blind future – it’s OURS, as opposed to anybody else’s – which is a bit cheeky in my opinion. In fact, it’s that capitalised OUR that gets on my tits. Tonality is an incredibly important and underappreciated aspect of communication, and here they’ve adopted the nyah-nyah tone of a prefect who surprises two Grade 9s smoking behind the Zozo hut at the bottom of the hockey field.
Like the meta-hatred I wrote about in my piece on Crocs, this is a form of meta-outrage. Certainly, some people have genuinely found this image offensive in the original sense of racial miscegenation (there’s a word you haven’t seen in ages), and have said so. DASO have manufactured an issue and, by assuming we’ll be offended by the image, have succeeded in genuinely offending almost everyone. And that outrage is less genuinely felt, more a performed response to an organisation that some love to loathe. It’s a reminder that texts can never be read in isolation; their interpretation is always moderated by who produces them and the context in which they are decoded (a reminder, since I have the opportunity to bang this drum again, why celebrities can’t say what the hell they like on Twitter, and why Durex can’t tell sexist jokes).
Apparently, more ads are in the pipeline. Maybe they’ll pair a black man with a white woman, which would be better shock value because it was that coupling that always kept the Klu Klux Klan, the Nats and the verkramptes of this world up at night. That would have been edgier than a black woman with a white man. As Marianne Thamm commented on Facebook, “[It] would be interesting to see responses if it was a black man and white woman…re subverting the unconscious power balances that are represented in the current poster. It’s too easy, too contrived to be subversive or really shift anything.”
Ultimately this has been a great education in media literacy. For once we’re not looking at the surface of an image and the sales message it carries, we’re looking through it in an attempt to understand the agenda beyond. The codes are laid bare (no pun intended). Most of the people who have seen this ad seem to be reading against it, something that rarely happens in advertising. It has triggered a great deal of debate, and that is never a bad thing. So not only is it a campaign for votes, it’s usefully didactic.
Good for you, DA. At least we can rest assured that you will always be there to show us the error of our ways.
I think the negative reactions have been both nauseating and hilarious.
The postyer features no nudity, violence or defamatory content.
somehow, it still strikes fear into the hearts of all myopic bigots. I think it’s a sad and telling day for our country, but it has inspired a lot of important discussions as well as drawing closet racists out of the woodwork and into the light where they can wither and die.
Along with 80% of South Africa, Sarah, you have overreacted to this image and jumped on the bandwagon of unreflective outrage and hysteria.
It’s not at all unreasonable nor offensive to suggest that people find interracial sex or relationships unusual — almost everyone in South Africa does. The fact is that people _do_ look twice at interracial couples, meaning that they _are_ aware of pressures around dating people of a different race. And that’s far from ideal. Look around you: that hyper-racial-consciousness is not manufactured by this advert at all, it’s widespread already. The ad suggests that in an ideal, non-racial future, we will have gone beyond such pettiness. What’s offensive about that? I think it’s a great prospect and, if you’re honest, you’ll admit that you do too.
Why,oh,why do these posters have perfect people featured in them?what about an old oom hugging a gogo with a kiss on her cheek? A tubby black teenager making eyes at a cute coloured girl?A white Goth guy with his arm protectively around the shoulder of a pretty and comely black girl? Get away from conventional stereotypes! South Africans are not like that
for the not so DASO poster
Let me state right upfront that I really do have better things to do than read another patronising self-important article about THAT poster. I should really backwash the pool and check the Ph. There are seven or eight tweets that I should retweet. Another cup of coffee would be nice, so I have to grind the beans.
But no, here I go, reading how a irrelevant political organisation stole the idea of attracting people’s attention by displaying a photograph of two people who are being affectionate, seemingly without any clothes on. The owner of this idea is apparently Benneton, or, more importantly, their advertising agency. I never knew that, so I feel better about things already.
Actually I like the poster.
A black man with a white woman would be passe – all over Africa the first thing the new black elite did was get a trophy white wife/girlfriend.
And I don’t see anyone winning votes from the Zulus with your first alternative (considering the recent comments attributed to the Zulu king, and previously to Zuma).
Which I find hilarious, considering that all the evidence points to the fact that their hero, King Shaka, was of the third sex.
I have told you before that G-d has a sense of humour!
I enjoy your writing but in this article you seem blind to some realities. The fact remains that, racially, we are still very divided. I don’t believe the many interracial relationships has changed that, much. And beyond the thought it may provoke, it also represents what we should be striving for: an embrace of one another(our different cultures) in an intimate way. We can never be colorblind; or differences are more then skin deep( cultural differences, linguistic differences, different historical experiences) However, we can embrace our differences in a harmonious manner. I think this is a good interpretation of the ad and is in line with DA ethos.
For me the interesting thing is that people are reacting at all. There is nothing even remotely shocking about the poster, it doesn’t get under my skin at all. But why is it touching a nerve? That’s the question I find interesting and answering it will tell one a whole lot about oneself.
I disagree, Sarah. I think that its actually a clever poster by the DA Youth which shows that they have some very aware media strategists. I hope and expect that they will follow it with a ‘black man-white woman’ version which, as a couple of posters have pointed out, would be very edgy indeed given that this was one of the greatest bete-noires of the racist ideologues of apartheid. A couple of points:
1. The reaction has been even more interesting than the poster. The furore generated shows how race is unsurprisingly still one of the biggest issues in South Africa. Its also been very effective in flushing the closet racists, of whom there are many, out into the open. As one poster has said, the reaction tells us lots about ourselves.
2. ‘Maybe this image is shocking in Putsonderwater; in Pinelands or Parkwood it’s just naff’. But the vast majority of South Africans live in places that are far more like Putsonderwater. Race remains our prime form of self-identification. The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s SA Reconciliation Barometer 2010 found that 57% of South Africans assert their primary identity by race or by closely related factors (language, ethnicity and race in descending order of importance). Only 14% assert their prime identity as South African. The breaking down of racial barriers remains a vitally important task in most of South Africa.
Post continued …
Continued post …
3. The poster is quite deliberately targeted at the demographic that is probably the DA’s best hope of picking up further support come the next election. Young, sophisticated, middle class folk of the ‘Model C Generation’ across all races. These 20 and 30 somethings are far more likely to have cross-racial friendships and relationships than their parents or poorer people, both of whom tend to stick to their own racial groups. COPE picked up quite alot of votes from this group at the last election but as they have now imploded the DA will be looking to transfer this support. You’re right that the poster doesn’t speak to the complexities and structural issues of race, but then this group largely, although naively, consider themselves ‘post-racial’. I think that it’s a clever bit of marketing.
4. I assume that the picture of a gay couple and the ‘Not a DA poster’ is intended facetiously. But there is an underlying serious point to be made. Such a poster will never see the light of day from any political party, let alone the DA, as the vast majority of South Africans, quite correctly, would be offended by it. The HSRC’s Social Attitudes Survey reports that between 80-85% of South Africans believe that it is “wrong for two adults of the same sex to have sexual relations”, a finding that carries more or less unchanged across race, gender, age and class. Race is a serious issue for South Africa that should not be obscured by references to gay…
One of your best blogs, less flippant than some, and I noted that you stated your reluctance to write it. Some events touch a nerve, and that not always negative. One never know when starting a day what magic will unfold. Brilliant ad on all fronts, unquestionably well intended.
Seems to me its all about South Africans awakening, as painful as that is for some. And wow, what a country wide response. Good on DA student youth. Bravo.
I’ve been in an interracial relationship for 7 years, we’re married and have two kids, while most south africans don’t seem to care, we get the stares every time we’re out in public, even now in 2012. I actually feel a bit of affinity to this ad, but mixed couples are still not common enough for us to be a worthwhile voting demographic.
@ Walter
Spot on. I find nothing offensive either personally or politically with the poster and the sentiment expressed is an admirable one. The entire world needs to grow up with regard to race but because of its history, South Africa is a special case in point. The question shouldn’t be about whether there is anything “immoral” about the photo; it should be about the recognition that in a non-racial society there would be nothing to react to…
The question to ask is, at the end of the day, will this campaign assist in getting more votes?????
I think the poster is great!
“Maybe they’ll pair a black man with a white woman…”
Agreed. I also think they should do that, would be just as great.
“DASO have manufactured an issue.”
Think about that one again, Sarah. Just the reactions that arose should make you realise that it played on an already existing, underlying issue (or issues). They simply highlighted that – there was clearly no need to “manufacture” an issue.
In general though, many South Africans really need to get over themselves.
I agree with Lyndall’s comment above.
The black guy/white woman thing has been so overdone, it’s started to become a political statement.
Far from being offensive, it makes a racially integrated future a plausible reality.
However, the sort of reaction I have read on Twitter shows how deep the divide between people really is. I am at a loss to understand some of the comments, let alone the thinking behind people who don’t like the poster.
All this mad knee jerk reaction proves that such “wakeup” posters are what we need. Wake up Sarah Britten and smell the coffee, (pun intended).
As a black woman in an interracial relationship I really like the message in the poster as we people do look twise and it is really uncomfortable especially if we are in the East rand or South…i guess it highlighted an important part of reconciliatory process. I hope nexxt time people look twise at me and my partner they will think about the poster and re-think their intrenched racialised perceptions which all South African’s suffer from.
Whatever. It’s naff. No, pathetic. Makes me despise the DA even more.
How ridiculously racist and stupidly political that this sublime poster caused a stir. I applaud it for the reaction it provoked because the truth is that South Africa is sliding backwards…and if no one admits that, then how are we suppose to start fixing the problems.
Once again I wonder at how so-called media and marketing experts think they know so much, and go to great lengths to read all manner of nonsense into an advert. Sometimes I just have to laugh when I hear them discussing their latest advert as though it is something really profound and deep.
As for this poster, it’s obviously aimed young people. It’s simple, straightforward and there’s no reason to read all kinds of spurious nonsense into it.
Not your best work Sarah. I’ve followed the deluge of opinions on Fb, Twitter, M&G and IOL. And I’ve yet to find a half-relevant analysis of the ‘issue.’ Certainly there’s the usual DA-bashing (which is seems to be has become a national pastime on Twitter), the ‘moral’ outrage at nakedness/sex (predictable) and then the outright racist objections to the black and white thing (equally predictable). I cant quite put my finger on it, but there’s something more to this than has been discussed up to now – gut feel tells me that Walter’s, Paddy’s and Philip’s opinions, and others like theirs, are relevant, and maybe more prevalent, than the media has indicated.
Judging by most responses, I think the DA managed to alienate virtually the entire South Africa with this poser poster.
Well done DASO – get these racists used to the idea. I still see the food falling from some mouths as they stare when a couple of mixed race walks past their table in a restaurant.
“….they’ve taken explicit ownership of a colour-blind future – it’s OURS, as opposed to anybody else’s…”. Who’s “they”? Surely the line does make sense, as the ‘our’ relates to our youth. And why would they (the youth) not want to take explicit ownership of a colour-blind future?
To all the racists of all kinds!!! Are you sure you want your children, grandchildren and all generations to come inherit the burden of your racism eternally? Is your intellect merely skin-deep?
do you REALLY have to use the “blah blah fishpaste” drivel?? It’s been around since Moses was in short pants and carries no literary, journalistic, or funny value-add.
Good for the DA. THAT poster is still going to hit the streets, I assume. It’ll do well for the DA who in turn will do well for SA. We’re tired of prejudice. We’re tired, too, of endless analysis and comment on innocuous and effective images.
This DASO poster is at once a nice piece of eye candy, a provocative (and somewhat nauseating) challenge, and incendiary enough to provoke a response. I learnt nothing new about the DA from this poster – they will chase the constituency they believe furthers THEIR future while frantically clutching on to their existing support base. I learnt something about my own latent racist attitudes, and for an opportunity to ponder and reflect on those – thank you DA.
Would I vote for the DA to help them achieve THEIR future? Not a chance. I will vote for the party in any election that identifies most closely with what I want MY future to look like – and if that happens to be the DA, I had better be prepared after the vote to watch them carefully, or MY future might become THEIR future. THEIR perks, THEIR cronies, THEIR tenders and THEIR pedagogy. Ironic. In trying to look less like their political competition, they resemble them more closely.
You won’t see a reversed ‘black man with white woman’ ad for the same reason you won’t see a ‘white wise-man with a black half-wit’ as the reverse of the cell-phone company ad of a year or so ago.
When I was a student at the University of Cape Town (English speaking and Liberal) from 1966-1969, our rival was the University of Stellenbosch (Afrikaans and Nationalist).
The rivalry between them,especially in sports like Rugby, was similar to the Oxford/Cambridge rivalry.
It was surprising how many English girls prefered Afrikaans boyfriends (more masculine and beefy), and how many Afrikaans girls prefered English boyfriends (more sensitive and artistic).
I have come to the conclusion that “opposites attract” happens as often as “birds of a feather flock together”.
And that the more adventurous try something new, and the insecure prefer to stick to their own.
I guess the time has come for South Africans to open up the race debate. We have been sitting on it for years and acted as if it does not matter. We need to ask ourselves questions. Where did we lose it? Have we ever discussed race relations or we just jumped to reconciliation? Whatever that was… As long as we jump up and down when these issues are raised and not discuss them, come 2020 we will still be jumping up and down because we will not have a stand on race relations. By the way, I still have to be told what is wrong with the poster. I hope they will also use the second one on this column. Pls Mr Gana, use that poster, please!!!
The DA pictures aren’t the interesting one’s in this article.
I am more intrigued with the message the writer is trying to get across with her picture.. Any significance regarding the cock she chose to be photographed with?
I guess there are more important matters on our agenda and folks who find it necessary to keep using skin colour to get their message across are ludicrous. It is blatantly unclear exactly what the message is anyway. Ashley and Sheryl, Seal and Heidi, Tiger and Erin. Folks all think they were cool. These folks are all celebrities of note, especailly because of their notoriety and behaviour, so what’s the fuss now and exactly what is wrong with anyone admiring or even loving another person ( of the opposite sex that is ) regardless of their skin colour. Why dont folks really understand that people are just people, unpredictable, obsessive, greedy, self indulgent and plain crazy. The strangest and meanest creatures on the planet? No doubting that one and our politicians are top of the class in that category.
Since the target market is 18-20-year-olds, I cannot really understand why the opinion of anyone over 25 would matter. The posters are likely to be on view at universities and FETs where some young people may not even notice them. Rural people may, but if they have something to say, I’m sure the SRCs will go out ‘on strike’ in full force, screaming ‘Kill the whites’ as they already do.
It occurs to me that a second, more important debate could be aired in homes all over the country, by parents who know of the poster: that of safe sex. Another hobby horse of the DA and a well worthwhile one.
Had this poster emerged in 1994, it could have been considered revolutionary; now it’s just ‘old hat’.
I love this pic, it is just one of those sexy intimate pics of a couple about to make love and I have to agree with one Radio station host that a new or existing condom brand would enhance this pic to make more sense which would be educational. I see no colour difference, I have a lot of white friends dating black girls/guys and its so normal. I think if we were in the apartheid time it would cause a lot of noise or disgust. For goodness sake this is the 21st century and race is not what we worry about but are facing issues concerning unemployment, education, crime, corruption, HIV/AIDS, martenal deaths, housing, electricity, floods, global warming, human trafficking, teenage pregnancies, sanitation, etc… the list goes on
One thing that I do take issue with is the slogan.
In any immediate future that I can forsee two young people standing naked in public staring into each other’s eyes are going to be looked at more than twice by most people!
All this jibber-jabber about a poster has me noticing more interracial couples walking hand in hand on the street, just like when one buys a new car and notices them more on the road….it doesn’t mean that these relationships didn’t exist before all the fuss was created…so to all in sundry, it’s a case of as you were!
“All publicity is good publicity. Just make sure you spell my name right” – Henry Ford.
The DA Students Organisation has certainly got that right.
While the ANCYL focusses on stealing and screwing, the young DA supporters are trying to change the country (for the better).
“Good on ‘em”
I love it. It’s beautiful!
For years the ANC and its acolytes have tried to caste the DA as racist. The ad shatters their narrative completely. They sit with a proverbial mouth full of teeth.
My view is this: Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care. There is bigger fish to fry than posters.
Must say I’m beginning to feel a complex coming on; I just don’t get it, I really don’t. Have gazed at this ad and feel nothing. Should I connect with the outrage? My attitude is ” whatever ” it’s just a pretty picture get over it. Methinks this is all way over the top hype.
I think this poster (even if a blatant rip-off of the Benetton ad) would have been very effective…10 or 15 years ago. Looking at it now it seems like a very cheap and not very well thought out piece of marketing. In my opinion something less blatant and with more subtlet would have been more effective
The poster is about race. It is saying, effectually, “We are not racists, because we support the idea of white men having sex with black women”. Which is, sort of, fair enough, assuming you edit out the sexual behaviour of white men with black women under colonialism and apartheid, (The DA naturally does so.) If you have difficulty editing that out, then you might have a problem with the poster.
Alternatively, you might say, as many people are saying “Oh, ho-hum, who cares if white people have sex with black people”. The answer, unfortunately, is that a large number of white racists are troubled about that (although less troubled about white males being on top than black males, of course). The DA is, presumably, trying to reassure its constituency that it is not racist, and therefore they are not racist. But , of course, such a poster is only meaningful in the context of racism — “looking twice” implies that there’s something weird about white men having sex with black women. In other words, it is an acknowledgement that there is racism, concomitant with a claim that there isn’t racism.
Frankly, it’s rather dumb. But that’s the DA youth for you.
Love it! Perfect poster for the intended target market – well done to the DASO!
Considering the target market (as it were), I would argue that the point of the poster is that the DA wishes for a future where “interracial” relationships (be they simple friendships or marriage) is simply considered as normal as any others.
In other words: While they acknowledge that racism is still a hot potato, they also wish to see it relegated to the dustbin of history as another outdated and idiotic notion. This is no easy task given the history of South Africa, but I think that it certainly is a noble vision and well worth striving for.
Great article Sarah… think you’d enjoy the cartoon on the whole race relations topic around the DASO poster.. check out DASO poster cartoon