Telkom has not been on my radar for quite a while now. No adverts on tv or radio or the internet or billboards or anywhere else.
I hardly even notice the Telkom branch in my local mall even though I pass it most week days and some weekends.
But last week all that changed…
I walked by Telkom’s little shop as I normally do in the evening after work and noticed a long line forming from within to right outside the shop. My first thought was that they were customers paying their monthly phone bills, seeing it was the end of the month.
Not that it made sense, because you can pay your phone account or any account anywhere these days.
The next day at around 5.45pm I passed it again and noticed that the store was once again packed. This happened every day for the entire week.
It made me realise that one of the most annoying parastatals had gone very quiet recently. No adverts to remind us how Telkom connects grandparents and grandchildren and university students and parents. And they used to serve us those adverts when they had no competition. Now that Neotel is around, Telkom has given us nothing. Not a cute advert in sight.
Neotel themselves are more like a state secret than anything else. I only know of one person, my sister, who uses Neotel.
The Telkom mystery bothered me. What were so many people doing in Telkom’s shop and how did they find out about whatever deal was on offer. I saw a few advertisements outside the shop door (had not noticed them before) and a few hanging from the room in the store.
But nothing that looked particularly appertising to me!
I still haven’t discovered what everyone wants from Telkom these days, because the last time I checked they were the scourge of society.
Mind you, I have not heard a complaint about Telkom on a long time…
Have they redeemed themselves in the eyes of telecommunication customers or are the cellphone operators and Neotel making Telkom look a lot better than we thought they were.
Looks like Nando’s decided to pull their Last Dictator Standing Advert because Robert Mugabe’s supporter have been threatening Nando’s Zimbabwe employees.
Very unlike Nando’s, I have to say. Very suprising since the advert has apparently received a bit of international attention online. And not only from Mugabe’s supporters.
Nando’s have been known to hit the market with funny – if sometimes controversial adverts – and then pulled them shortly afterwards. So they either made the impact they intended or the advert hadn’t generated the business they expected.
They seldom use the same advert for a long time.
Not so long ago Julius Malema threatened militant action if Nando’s didn’t pull their 100% Julius advert.
Not to mention print media ones with Joost and Amor.
So there I was, minding my own business when this strange advertisement crossed my tv screen.
As I live and breathe! On my screen is none other than Jo-anne Strauss, former Miss South Africa and current Top Billing presenter: laughing, talking on a cellphone and walking with not a Louis Vuitton bag, but a Shoprite yellow plastic carrier bag.
I hardly ever take a second look at advertisements.
But that split second of Jo-anne left me stunned and staring at the screen.
Clever marketing, Shoprite
Next followed Brumilda van Rensburg, formerly Louwna on Egoli and Sharleen Surtee-Richards famous diabetic and another former Egoli actress.
Makhaya Ntini had a part, Bafana Bafana player Siphiwe Tshabalala and I think Leon Schuster (who seems to be on every second advertisement these days, so I could have hallucinated him).
There were a few other celebs, but my mind was still stuck on Jo-anne Strauss.
I always pictured Top Billing presenters as averse to shopping for food and household products. (They eat and use the bathroom???) Ms Strauss did have very little in her Shoprite carrier bag, to be fair.
Or if they ate at home at all, it would be from Woolworths Food, don’t you think?… baby vegetables and lettuce and tiny bits of stuff.
At a stretch I could imagine Jo-anne running into Pick n Pay or even Checkers or Spar for a bottle of sparkling water.
But Shoprite? Are you serious?
That yellow decor would clash with that flowing designer evening gowns I imagine she wears on a ‘normal’ day. (And Jeannie D, I imagine, wears too small clothes and practices her Julia Roberts-like laugh all day.)
Obviously Shoprite’s latest marketing campaign’s purpose is to get the public to their stores to spot celebrities.
Why else have all those celeb shoppers in their advert?
I wouldn’t place any bets on spotting Jo-anne Strauss in your local Shoprite though.
Wanna guess what she has tucked into her yellow Shoprite plastic carrier bag?
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