You'd be mighty surprised to see a Louis Vuitton advert in your daily newspaper and so I was embarrassed - and a little ashamed - to discover recently that, being an Engelse meisie in a world dominated by the English language, I had never given the slightest thought to the need for ads to match the language of the product.
Growing vernacular press
In a country of 11 official languages and a growing vernacular press in the form of hugely successful isiZulu newspapers such as Isolezwe and Ilanga [news just in is that Pietermaritzburg's Capital Media Group, backed by Caxton CTP, is launching and rebranding eight isiZulu community newspapers in KwaZulu-Natal under the Eyethu ("it is ours" in Nguni) brand - managing editor], I have been aware of the Pendoring awards for Afrikaans advertising (coming up on Friday, 21 October 2011) but that's where it stopped.
Then recently, I read an interview with Media24 CEO Esmaré Weideman in the September 2011 issue of AdVantage magazine in which she said she had put a stop to English advertising on the company's Afrikaans digital platforms and was "trying to introduce a clear policy in terms of language for our ads in the rest of our Afrikaans products".
She said she was worried about the continued pressure on editors to accept English ads in Afrikaans publications and was prepared to stand firm against this, as well as to convince advertisers of the value of communicating with the readers in the same language of the publication.
Who knew this was even an issue? My interest was piqued so I spoke to both Ilanga and Isolezwe to find out if they had the same problem and both said not at all - that they accepted English advertising and had never had complaints from readers about them.
Mandate and licence conditions
My next stop was the Port Elizabeth-based isiXhosa station, Umhlobo Wenene FM, (one of the biggest stations in the country with 4.5-million listeners) where station manager Nada Wotshela said: "We don't take English ads because of our [public service] mandate and licence conditions.
"Our listeners are also quite sensitive to the language issue. They complain at the slightest use of a foreign language on their platform, eg, ads produced in Johannesburg will sometimes have a Zulu word in because whoever was putting it together is so used to mixing languages due to their environment.
"Our listeners will never let it slide. You see the thing is, as African, we feel the need to protect and promote our languages vigorously because they have been marginalised for a very long time, which has led to their slow development and further desertion by our youth."
Why does it even matter?
So what gives here, that English adverts are OK in the isiZulu press and not in the Afrikaans press and Umhlobo Wenene? Why does it even matter to advertisers and editors?
Tim du Plessis, Media24's head of Afrikaans titles Beeld, Die Burger, Volksblad and Rapport, explains the readers' attitude thus: "They get really angry when they see English ads.
"The complaint typically goes like this: 'I bought Beeld/Die Burger/Volksblad/Rapport because I want to read my paper in Afrikaans. If I wanted to read my paper in English, I would have bought an English paper. If you continue running English adverts, I will stop buying your paper. And, by the way, tell your client I'm going to stop buying his product because I can see my "Afrikaans" money is not good enough for him'.
"Vibrant creativity in Afrikaans advertising"
"Irrational?" asks Du Plessis, "Perhaps. Damaging to your brand? For sure. I sometimes wish some of those monolingual decision-makers could see the vibrant creativity in Afrikaans advertising annually on display at the Pendoring awards."
Du Plessis points out that Media24 has always had a policy of no English ads in its Afrikaans titles. Recently it has not always been consistently applied, he says, so Weideman was merely insisting that the policy by applied consistently across print and digital platforms.
"If we insist on Afrikaans ads for our Afrikaans printed products, it makes sense to do the same for the digital products," Du Plessis says. "This is something we must get right from the onset. It would be silly to allow, for some illogical reason, English ads on Afrikaans digital platforms when they're not allowed in print."
Du Plessis says there is an ebb and flow in the pressure on Afrikaans papers to allow adverts in English but that the company recently upgraded its capacity to translate English ads into Afrikaans.
"Refuse to have them translated"
"It's not always possible because some adverts are specifically created in English. Clients or agencies then refuse to have them translated. Sometimes it's big money that has to be turned down.
"I wish I could explain to all those advertisers and business managers how damaging it is to their brands to try and force Afrikaans media to carry English adverts - especially government business. The readers know those ads are paid for with their tax money. They think they have a right to be addressed in their home language by the government and its agencies."
Du Plessis says the loss in revenue is outweighed by staying true to the reader.
"Look to the future"
"Sometimes you have to look beyond bottom line and look to the future. Afrikaans newspapers, whether they are digital or print, will lose their unique character if we allow them to be decked out with English ads. Once they lose that, the fiercely loyal readers will turn to other titles.
"In general Afrikaans people don't do things in half measures. They want their papers to be thoroughly Afrikaans in look and feel."
It is hard for first-language English speakers to understand how speakers of other languages can easily feel swamped by English - and why some, such as the French, are so fiercely determined to protect their language that they will not speak English to tourists visiting their country.
Is it possible that with isiZulu so buoyantly on the rise as a language of influence in our country, that the readers of Isolezwe and Ilanga don't feel so threatened? That they feel positive about their language's growth so that they are happy to have English adverts?
Demand to be spoken to in their own language
It is hard to say. Certainly Umhlobo Wenene has a unique personality, which is rootsy empowerment for the Bible Belt of the Eastern Cape, so its listeners demand to be spoken to in their own language, whether in programming or advertising.
In that sense, the Afrikaans newspapers have a similar heritage to Umhlobo Wenene: they are also bound up in the development and promotion of their language and culture.
"Papers such as Die Burger and Volksblad, 96- and 106-years-old respectively, have a long and proud involvement with the struggle of Afrikaans to gain official recognition," Du Plessis says. "Afrikaans papers have always and still play a huge role in language development. Many of the most descriptive words in Afrikaans have their origins in Afrikaans newsrooms."
So maybe it's less a question of where the readers are going but where they come from in their collective journey over generations with the newspapers. The Afrikaans papers have helped to forge the Afrikaans identity in a way that no English newspaper in South Africa can claim to have done for its readers.
Afrikaans ranks number three"
"In terms of home language, Afrikaans ranks number three, behind isiZulu and isiXhosa. Rather than being defensive about their language, I think Afrikaans readers recognise that their language will become endangered if not spoken and heard at all levels in their everyday existence," says Du Plessis.
"Also, that Afrikaans should maintain its commercial value as a language. And they fully appreciate that the future of Afrikaans is essentially in the hands of people who speak the language - not the government. In that sense, Afrikaans is de-linked from the political dynamics in the country."
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