Archive for the ‘media’ Category
Thursday, August 11th, 2011 |
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?
Posted in advertising, celebrities, marketing, media | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 |
I get my news from Facebook these days. And it seems like every day at least a few feeds on the upcoming royal wedding appear on my Facebook page!
And I’m not talking about the royal wedding of the Prince of Monaco and the South African former swimmer.
Oh no. That one we fortunately don’t have to read about. Or hear about.
It’s that other royal wedding – the one between William and Kate Middleton, taking place on 29 April, that the media is shoving down our collective throats.
I’ve seen headlines about the wedding itself, Kate’s fashion sense, her suitability to be royal, etc.
If only it was just the entertainment sites and magazines. Or only the UK tabloids, for that matter.
But no, The New York Times and Newsweek bombards us as well. Even after scathing comments from Facebook fans.
I’m sick of it and I haven’t read one article. Other than Facebook comments on the articles.
(Mostly unfavourable!)
Anyway, we are a lot more jaded about marriage now than we were in 1981!
Those of us who saw the royal wedding of Charles and Diana have long ago given up on the idea of a prince rescuing his princess.
Cheating on her, yes. And vice-versa. As the’ve shown us.
Some of us have been married and divorced already. And even the most happily married amongst us know that marriage is not a fairytale by any stretch of the imagination.
Even when we wish William and Kate well, we are aware that the marriage have an equal chance of flourishing or failing.
And we know that the very media who are shoving the ‘romance’ down our throats will be scrutinising their lives for any sign of trouble.
They will focus on the amount of time the couple spend together. And the chances of her producing an heir. Their body language will be analysed for signs of whatever the media wish to pinpoint.
Her fashion sense will be lauded and criticised in equal measure. If she wears the same dress twice she will the laughing stock of tabloids. If she doesn’t she’ll be called extravagant!
We, the public, have been put in the middle when the marriage of Charles and Diana started imploding. Like children of divorcing parents we felt like we had to choose sides.
The media hounded William’s mother, Diana, to her death. And we felt that for every time we admired her in print, made us compliant in that death.
Come 29 April, I will look at wedding pictures (because who doesn’t like wedding pictures – I do anyway), but only that day.
I have no interest in the daily lives of celebrities. And any magazine or newspaper who continue to dish about Kate and William with any regularity, will be summarily unfriended!
Posted in celebrities, media | No Comments »
Monday, April 4th, 2011 |
As is the case for other Vodacom customers, I received an sms just a few minutes ago informing me of their new branding.
I’m sure we Vodacom users are jumping for joy. NOT.
Anyway, they’ve gone from their usual blue to Vodafone red, because as their advert says, red is simpler.
Whatever!
Bring on cheaper cellphone call charges and especially data charges – then we’ll talk! Does anyone still SMS?
The changes were made to bring Vodacom in line with Vodafone, their international parent company.
Vodacom has already started rolling out their new marketing campaign on television, SMSes and billboards on major highways.
And they’re using their ‘old’ advertisement characters to do so.
As the saying goes: a change is as good as a holiday, but for customers of the major telecommunications companies the main changes we want to see are the ones to our pockets.
Not to mention real competition between the networks.
Posted in marketing, media, vodacom | 3 Comments »
Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 |
Looks like Nigel Pierce has been given the shaft by SABC’s Goodhope FM (again) as he has been given the 9am to 12pm shift from 1 April.
And it seems like Nigel Pierce’s move to the new shift is not an April fool joke as many had thought. The announcement was made on 31 March 2011.
Being moved to the after breakfast show is not good news to any radio DJ as that shift is normally given to radio DJs just before putting them out to pasture.
But it’s hard to believe that Goodhope FM would shoot themselves in the foot like that. Since as far as I know, Nigel Pierce is popular in the morning.
They must have done their market research.
Not that I do radio in the morning. And when I did it was 5FM.
Other people I know do like Pierce’s show. Recently a whole discussion around the defection of one of Pierce’s Breakfast team members to Heart 104fm took place at our office. Just before a meeting.
Phat Joe at Heart 104 was said to be the bad guy in the story of he and Pierce’s on-air feud.
If they are to be believed! And I think it’s a publicity stunt.
Regardless, Phat Joe held a mock funeral on Thursday morning, but didn’t pitch for work on Friday. Causing some to believe he was suspended.
Nigel Pierce is urging his supporters to contact GHFM management and complain about the move. Although he refuses to comment further publicly.
He uses his Facebook and Twitter accounts and according to an article in the Weekend Argus, which Pierce keeps alluding to on his Nigel Pierce show Facebook page, he intends fighting the move through his union rep.
Pierce of course has been fired by Goodhope FM before. As well as Cape Talk. So he probably has learnt to keep his mouth shut.
Which might explain the reason for the move to the safe slot. Plus one of his Facebook fans refers to him as uncle Nige. Hel-looo!
And he updates his Facebook page every five minutes. Very uncool, Nige!
Has Nigel Pierce been demoted because he lost his edge?
Posted in celebrities, media | No Comments »
Friday, August 6th, 2010 |
I’ve always been a magazine freak. Loved either buying them or receiving in the mail through subscriptions.
At one time I subscribed to Fairlady, Oprah Magazine, Ideas and Shape Magazine. All at the same time.
And I bought the You Magazine weekly.
Now I don’t subscribe to any at all. Since I don’t have time to do crossword puzzles, there is no reason for me to buy the magazines anymore.
I subscribe to their Facebook pages, check out their websites and that’s that. They usually have most of the best parts of the magazine online anyway.
Why waste money on a subscription when you may or may not receive your magazine, depending on whether there is a free gift or not.
I buy Fairlady most months – for the fashion and make-up and if the You magazine has any local celebrities on the cover who I might want to blog about, I will buy that.
Last month’s Fairlady just bored the heck out of me. And the last You did the same thing.
Every week You has a poll on their Facebook page asking readers to guess who is on the cover. Every week requests are made for local celebs and every Friday we’re presented with an international star.
It aggravates the heck out of me! So I just haven’t been buying the You. If I wanted to read something about Penelope Cruz or Angelina Jolie, I could do so for free on the internet.
I made my decision to not buy this week’s You based on this cover:
What more do we need to know about Angelina Jolie that we don’t already know? Actually no international celebrity interests me enough to buy a magazine with their faces on it. Maybe Jennifer Aniston. But that’s it!
I’m actually surprised that You magazine continually ask their Facebook fans to guess the cover, because it causes quite a stir every week.
Posted in media | 4 Comments »
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