16690: SASKO Sandwich Stunt Feels Like Baloney.

 

Machine in South Africa is responsible for this SASKO campaign celebrating Freedom Day with a limited edition Freedom Loaf—which featured white and brown bread together, prompting people to make Freedom Sandwiches. Here’s the explanation:

 

Sandwiches have been made the same way throughout the years. It’s always brown on brown, white on white, rye on rye, wholewheat on wholewheat. It’s as if the Group Areas Act* and Immorality Act** were in effect for bread.

 

On Freedom Day (27 April) 2024, a day commemorating 30 years of democracy in the country, SASKO encouraged South Africans to challenge the norm and free their taste buds. How? By making and enjoying their sandwich using both white and brown slices (or any other kind of bread, for that matter). We revealed a limited edition Freedom Loaf. It got dropped off with influencers and these influencers made Freedom Sandwiches, sharing them on social, encouraging people to make their own. There were 45 pieces of influencer created content, thanks to the Freedom Loaf, helping to increase engagement with SASKO online by 529%. The earned PR was significant and the Freedom Loaf was so well-received, people voiced on social media how they wanted it to become a permanent feature of the SASKO bread range.

 

*The Group Areas Act: an apartheid era South African law that ensured there were designated areas for a specific race to live and no mixing was allowed with other races.

 

**The Immorality Act: an apartheid era South African law that made it illegal for whites and people of colour (brown/black) to be in relationships (intimate or otherwise).

 

Gee, no one thought to create a Nelson Mandeli…?

 

14527: BHM 2019—Bill Cosby Cell-ebrates Black History Month.

Not sure why Bill Cosby chose to make his first public statement from jail during Black History Month. Definitely not sure why he positioned himself as a “political prisoner” alongside historical figures including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Dr. Benjamin Chavis. Not aware of any protest rallies with marchers chanting, “Free Cliff Huxtable!”

Bill Cosby says he won’t feel remorse because he’s a ‘political prisoner’

By Nicole Chavez, CNN

(CNN) In his first public statement from prison, Bill Cosby said he will never have remorse for his crimes and called himself a political prisoner.

“My political beliefs, my actions of trying to humanize all races, genders and religions landed me in this place surrounded by barb wire fencing, a room made of steel and iron,” the comedian said in a statement released through his press spokesman, Andrew Wyatt.

Cosby, 81, also noted that his cell at SCI Phoenix, the prison outside Philadelphia where he is serving his sentence, “resembles the quarters of some of the Greatest Political Prisoners—Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Randal Robinson, and Dr. Benjamin Chavis.”

Cosby’s statement was made public Wednesday after Wyatt spoke with WCAU in Philadelphia for a TV interview and revealed new details about the comedian’s time behind bars.

Cosby, once known as “America’s Dad,” was sentenced in September to three to 10 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

He’s being held at SCI Phoenix, a maximum security prison outside Philadelphia, and was recently moved to the prison’s general population. He spent a few months in a single cell in a unit adjacent to the infirmary, said Amy Worden, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

‘He did nothing wrong’

Wyatt and Cosby’s attorneys have been visiting the comedian in prison. They’ve seen Cosby smiling and taking the time to develop new projects, Wyatt said in the NBC10 interview.

“When I visit him it’s nothing sad about it,” Wyatt said. “He’s not sad, he’s not remorseful because he did nothing wrong.”

“The sheer volume of people coming forward making an accusation doesn’t mean that it’s true. And what America has said is that women don’t lie. Women do lie,” Wyatt added.

In his statement, Cosby agreed with Wyatt’s comments and argued that he was convicted even after authorities decided not to press charges against him in 2005 and when he reached a multimillion-dollar settlement for a civil lawsuit filed by Constand, one of the dozens of women who have publicly accused the comedian of sexual assault.

He believes it was the political aspirations of a district attorney and a judge that landed him in prison, according to the statement.

Cosby’s lengthy path to conviction began in 2004 when Constand accused him of sexual assault. A decade later, dozens of women came forward with accusations that Cosby had drugged and assaulted them in similar incidents over his career as a powerful media figure.

He was arrested in 2015 after a new team of prosecutors took up Constand’s case, which was the only case that occurred within the statute of limitations.

CNN’s Steve Forrest, Kristina Sgueglia and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.

14242: Maestro & Mandela.

On the centenary of the late Nelson Mandela’s birthday, the ever-patronizing and diversity-dedicated Google celebrates with a Doodle tribute to Maestro Kurt Masur, German conductor and humanitarian.

13886: Color Commentary On Mandela.

This probable Brazilian scam campaign appears to be culturally clueless too. After all, Stephen Hawking, Mother Teresa and even President Donald Trump emerge from books that might have inspired them—and were published before the prominent figures were born. Why is Nelson Mandela stepping out of The Color Purple? Surely there are other historical works that might have made more appropriate connections to the man.

12938: WoT WTF.

Campaign Global Editor In Chief Claire Beale posted a pathetic and patronizing perspective on gender equality in adland, inadvertently exposing the cultural cluelessness that persists in the field. For example, Beale opened by stating, “When a select bunch of the brightest and best young stars in the ad business were asked this week to name a leader they admired, there were plenty of answers, from Nelson Mandela to John Lennon.” First of all, why would the brightest and best name John Lennon as an admired leader? Second, putting Lennon in the same category as Nelson Mandela is pretty sad. Third, naming Mandela while working in a field where the exclusivity is arguably worse than pre-Mandela South Africa shows extraordinary hypocrisy, insensitivity and ignorance. Beale then segued to plug the Women of Tomorrow awards. Additionally, Beale spotlighted initiatives launched by various White advertising agencies to address the alleged dearth of dames, including equal pay schemes and Rooney Rule-style mandates for interviews. Um, why haven’t such tactics been implemented to address diversity in regards to recruiting and retaining non-Whites? If someone hatched an awards show to salute racism in the advertising industry, it would require producing an infinite number of first-place trophies.

Plenty of room at the top for women in advertising

By Claire Beale

When a select bunch of the brightest and best young stars in the ad business were asked this week to name a leader they admired, there were plenty of answers, from Nelson Mandela to John Lennon.

What there weren’t, though, were any women. Not a single female leader made the impromptu list.

The respondents were attending the second Campaign Future Leaders Programme. All had been identified by their agencies as people heading for top jobs in our industry. As it turned out, only a third of the future leaders on the course were women, which is in itself a worrying prognosis for the future of our business.

Anyway, if this group of ambitious execs had been asked to name great female leaders, no doubt they would have offered up plenty of examples — there’s no shortage. As it was, they appeared to succumb to a default association that conflates leadership with men.

So it was appropriate that this was also the week that the IPA and Campaign kicked off the Women of Tomorrow awards for 2016, which identify and champion those women on track for leadership positions in agencies. The awards invest a new generation of role models for young women coming into the business.

Yes, these are awards that recognise women but, crucially, they are designed to drive the success of the industry and secure its future: businesses with a good gender split at the top are proven to be more successful. A report last month from the accountants Grant Thornton found that publicly traded companies in the UK with only male directors missed out on £49 billion of investment returns last year — about 3 per cent of GDP.

We simply aren’t doing enough to encourage and support women as they rise through the ranks. WoT is a fabulous initiative and sits alongside Wacl’s prestigious Future Leaders award, which offers a training bursary to help women get to the top. But agencies themselves need to take systematic action.

It was clear from the WoT debate on Tuesday night, which officially launched the call for entries, that plenty of agencies are already doing just that. Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has set up a benchmarking system to ensure salary parity across the company; Bartle Bogle Hegarty is into the second year of its equal pay initiative but, when the agency interrogated its salary data, it actually found that it only had issues with the pay of three executives — and one of them was a man; J Walter Thompson is introducing a new approach to hiring creative talent, ensuring there’s always a woman on the interview shortlist and that interviews are conducted by a man and a woman. If your agency isn’t working on similar schemes, now’s the time to ask why not.

12709: Little Truth, Big Bullshit.

This campaign from Belgium highlights the hypocrisy in adland. That is, White advertising agencies love to present concepts featuring MLK, Gandhi and Mandela—while perpetuating the exclusivity that completely ignores the leaders’ teachings.

From Ads of the World.

12686: Drilling For A Concept.

If you drilled into the heads of the creative team responsible for these ads, you’d discover empty skulls.

From Ads of the World.

12557: CLIO Cluelessness.

The CLIO Awards have taken cultural cluelessness to award-winning levels. Anyone who can figure out this concept deserves to steal a trophy. To present Apartheid for an exclusive awards show catering to a segregated and arguably racist industry is nothing short of asinine—and patently offensive to boot.

12504: Nelson Mandela Photo Tribute.

The New York Daily News published “Nelson Mandela released from prison 25 years ago: The anti-apartheid hero’s life in photos.”

12172: Dirt Via Miami Ad School.

The only thing worse than the hackneyed instruction delivered to Miami Ad School students across the country? The hackneyed instruction delivered to Miami Ad School students in Brazil.

From Ads of the World.

11704: Diapers & Diversity.

Huggies® salutes Nelson Mandela…?

11703: M&M’s & Mandela.

A 2007 M&M’s advertisement originally created by BBDO Cape Town to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday has been resurrected to commemorate his passing. Can’t wait to see what the candy brand does for MLK Day or Black History Month.

11623: Nelson Mandela (1918-2013).

10537: Day Of Peace = Piece Of Shit.

Dumb or Stupid? CHOOSE!

From Ads of the World.