[Orchids & Onions] SAA takes off as Nedbank hits a bogey

I, for one, have no problem flying on the airline and have had far worse experiences on other airlines, both domestically and internationally.

Seeking out the good stories to tell - for a brand, or for a country (No 1 is at least right on that) - is a highly effective image builder and marketing tool.

But those stories have to be interesting and make the reader feel good. SAA is boasting (quite rightly) about what it did to help a project in the country to give school kids in under-privileged areas access to books.

Its print ad this week explained that when Food4Africa UK joined forces with three schools in Glasgow to collect old books for the project, they were taken back by the response - all 1.5 tons of it.

But, in stepped Giuseppe Tarantini of SAA Cargo Europe and the airline flew the books home. The top of the ad says: "This is a story about SAA," and continues: "and the 8,000 miles separating kids at home from books abroad".

It's a nice, feel-good ad and reminds us that, despite the antics of its well-connected chairwoman, this is a national institution which we can be proud of.

So an Orchid to SAA.

However, given that this is all about kids and education, and given that South Africa moved on to the metric system 40-odd years ago, couldn't someone be bothered to convert miles into kilometres?

© Teerawut Masawat – 123RF.com

Regular reader Daphne Schwab sent me this note: "We are watching the European Tour (Dubai) golf at the moment and were shocked to see the sexist, demeaning ad for the Nedbank Challenge... what on earth is it supposed to portray? A huge Onion for an otherwise great tournament."

Intrigued, mainly because you have to be some real kind of insensitive MCP to even consider running sexist marketing material in this day and age, I looked up the ad.

And I must say, Daphne is spot on.

The scene is Sun City. The event is the Nedbank Challenge. And the commentary is all about golf - starting with a discussion about "the lie". That is as a gorgeous woman awakens.

We then follow her down to the Valley of the Waves and the commentator continues his breathless "golf" commentary, ending with "I wonder whether she will pull it off".

That, of course, refers to her pool gown, which she does remove, revealing her stunning body, only barely contained by her bikini.

Har, har, har, okes! Pass me another beer here at the 19th hole. That's where chicks should be - in bikinis at the pool.

All this does is confirm for me that golf is a game for middle-aged lecherous men, many not in great physical shape themselves.

And I also see that SuperSport, whose ad this is, don't particularly care about offending women.

Perhaps they don't think women watch golf. Well memo for you okes: they do. And they don't care much for this sort of thing.

Onions both to SuperSport and Nedbank - the latter because, even if this isn't your ad, you need to keep a close eye on how your brand is being used because, guess what, a lot of your bank clients are women.

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