Who will ever forget the night Ard Matthews slipped up in front of the entire nation as he butchered our national anthem? I know I won’t.
The Springboks are easily one of the most influential collection of people in South Africa. Like Rugby or not these over-sized, often unattractive men are the heartbeats of our nation and continue to unite us as a country with every victory they achieve. How can we forget the heroes of 1995 and the legends of 2007? These men have a powerful influence on our country. Before their departure for the Rugby World Cup in 2011 the beloved “Bokke” were honoured at a capping ceremony in Johannesburg. As part of the celebration, the lead singer of the once popular band Just Jinjer was scheduled to sing the national anthem, Nkosi Sikelelie iAfrika. A small part of me laughed as I wrote “honoured” early on because Ard Matthews did anything but. He somehow managed to forget the words and made a complete fool of himself in front of millions of viewers.
Anyway, back to the ad. Is it effective? Absolutely. This ad was released shortly after the Ard Matthews disaster so the timing was perfect. The headline is clearly having a go at the once respected musician. By having a go at Mr Matthews the ad creates humour out of a potentially ‘touchy’ subject. Screwing up the national anthem in front of not only the Springboks ,but the entire nation is by no means a “forgive and forget” moment. This ad is refreshing in a sense that they’ve taken this potentially sensitive topic, turned it on its head and created humour out of it. South Africans tend to take themselves too seriously sometimes as we let little things offend and upset us. The body copy at the bottom re-enforces the support that Nando’s has for the Springboks. While they poke fun at Ard Matthews they still maintain a feel of patriotism which I believe works in their favour as they win over the hearts of many South Africans, firstly with their humour and secondly with the somewhat serious body copy at the end. They push the idea quite far out there but then they bring it back quite nicely at the end. The ad has a good balance of seriousness and fun which I think we, as the potential target market can appreciate.
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