Banning Alcohol Advertising

A couple of days ago I read on 2OV that the alcohol advertising debate is back on. You can read the original article here. I am feeling very disheartened by whatever argument the public puts forward in light of the e-Tolls that are being rolled out at the end of April despite mass striking and public outcry. However, this isn’t about e-Tolls (FYI I will never buy and e-Tag) this is about the alcohol ads.

I then got thinking about the alcohol ads in the past, some of my favourite being the Castle Lager ads that have been created by Ogilvy for the past 50 years. Each and every one of these adverts makes me smile and, amidst the country’s problems, makes me feel proudly South African.

As was proved by the prohibition (which banned alcohol altogether) in the US in the 1920’s and 1930’s people still drank. So you’ve got to be pretty thick to think that banning adverts is going to reduce the consumption of alcohol. Rhodes students will still bring up the drinking average in the country regardless of whether or not there are adverts. So all that we would really lose, in my opinion, is a few great ads that make you feel proud to be South African and happen to advertise alcohol.

Here are a few that I’ve managed to source. They all give me goose bumps (the good kind) and in my mind are some of the most iconic South African ads.

Thanks Ogilvy for the awesome Castle ads over the years! Here’s hoping that there are another 50 years to come!

Cheers!

It’s been a year. Already?

Over a year ago I wrote my last blog post. I’m not sure why I stopped, but I did. I decided to try and revive my blog, like a phoenix (albeit a small, baby practically newborn phoenix) rising from the ashes! Basically…I need my place to rant and ramble.

A lot has happened in a year, other than edging that much closer to 30 (27, sshhhh!) here are a few of the highlights from the past year.

Weddings. Lots and lots of weddings!  I watched…Leigh and Craig say ‘I do’ on the 12^th March 2011.

Leigh and Craig say ‘I do’ on the 12th March 2011.

Jo and Chris tied the knot on the 30th April 2011.

I celebrated my longest relationship EVER on the 16^th June. Jeremy and I had made it 6 months (and still counting). A milestone for me and a headache for him!

Me and Jem

I then floundered around Cape Town, not sure of what I really wanted to do. Until in a panic stricken ‘I’m wasting my life’ moment I decided to move up to Jo’burg. A quick Gumtree search found me a flat share (with a potential Joseph Fritzl), I packed my car and I was off 2 days later.

I arrived in the big city (not entirely foreign as Jeremy lives here) with no job, a wedding I needed to get to in 2 weeks (in Ireland) and a housemate (still potentially Joseph Fritzl).

So…my flatmate. She turned out to be a she and very much NOT a Joseph Fritzl. This is the very pretty she:

Jess-Dawg. Looking all shmodel-like.

Jess-Dawg and I got on like a house on fire. We both like wine and Marlboro lights. Sweet!

So the house was sorted and now I needed a job. Enter Gumtree round 2. I saw an ad for an event that needed assistants so I applied, interviewed (not sure why – I basically packed T-shirt boxes for 10 days), and got the job. After they briefed me in on the job specs…this was my reaction:

“Sorry you need what? I must get up at 5am to pack T-shirt boxes? Dude…um… work in Cape Town only starts at 9am. Would that work for you? No? Okay, see you at 6am!”

So boxes for the 702 Walk the Talk I did pack! I met a really cool chick along the way. Meet Kim, my fellow T-shirt box packer:

She's in Abu Dhabi now.

Kim and I got on like a house on fire. We both like recreational drinking and Marlboro lights. Sweet!

Kim also used her connections (Richard if you read this I still owe you buckets of Guinness) to get me a flight to Ireland 3 days before take off. It must have cost an arm and a leg you say? Well no. It came to a grand total of R6000. Return. Richard is amazing and yes, SAA your R3000 flights to Cape Town from JHB are unreasonable.

Amidst my early starts and late nights at the pub with Kim,  Jeremy had asked that I go to one of his friends dinner parties. Feeling thoroughly sleep deprived and not in the mood for more socialising he dragged me. Kicking. And. Screaming! Little did I know that I would meet this chick:

She's on a yacht somewhere in Europe now.

Bianca, an ex-radio chick sans the face for radio, told me that her agency was looking for someone exactly like me. So over dinner she took my number, insisted I took hers and that I mail my CV first thing in the morning. I did. She then said that I had an interview 2 days after I returned from Ireland. Whew! Things were working out.

On the 25^th of July, I was on an Emirates flight with not much of a plan other than to get to my best friends wedding who, I might add, only knew I was coming the night before I flew which was exactly 6 days before her wedding.

I touched down in Dublin on the 26^th of July and was greeted by my wonderful friend Dag. Dag and I had had a rip-roared 3-month booze/party/extravaganza in Cape Town in 2010, and I hadn’t seen my good mate since then. Now, a year later she and her boyfriend decided to tie the knot. They had been dating for 10 years – it was about time!

On the 31^st July I got to see my best mate Dag marry her best friend (no hard feelings Dag) Hugh.

Ireland is the spot to get hitched. If the weather holds out.

I also gate crashed Dag and Hugh’s 1^st honeymoon…or mini-moon, as we ended up calling it.

The newlyweds...

...and their gatecrasher!

I drank lots of Murphy’s, ate way too many potatoes and had an amazing time. Did I mention that my best mate’s Husband owned a pub?

I ♥ Hugh! Nice work Dag!

Before I knew it was on the plane (after nearly missing it) and on my way to England where I was going to stay in Brighton with my friends Michelle and Tracy:

Shell and Trace

They showed me around Brighton – a VERY interesting place. I saw this on Brighton Pier:

Yes. An entire party of Mr. T's. 'I piddy da fool(s)'!

After 2 nights with them I was on the train and up to London to see all my friends that I hadn’t seen since Australia days back in 2007. A quick razzle and I was on the flight the next night home.

I landed and was greeted by Jeremy with a Body Shop hamper. He’s really subtle. Yes, okay! It had been a long flight and I didn’t smell my finest!

I quickly recovered from jet lag (AKA 2 weeks of partying overseas), interviewed with Bianca and voila! I got the job! I started the very next day and have been at Trigger since.

My team last year: @Bianca_Meyjes (now sailing the seven seas), @Unodewaal, @SirDyl, Me (@littlecreach) and @thamster7. A few more peeps joined the team this year, but I don't have an updated group shot - sorry guys.

Right, so that brings us up to speed I think? If you’re still reading…thanks for bearing with me in trying to cover a year in a single blog post. I’ll try and make my posts more relevant. If I don’t – well no one is asking you to read them!

Moral of the story? Wing it! You don’t always need a plan in life for things to work out. I’m happier than I think I’ve ever been and it didn’t come as a result of a ‘to-do list’ or a ‘life plan’.

And on that bombshell…

- L

Singh Singh’s bling bling!

A friend of mine recently got back from India and as I was browsing through his photos I came across this gem (pun intended):

The girls from Jersey Shore would love this. It's both cheap and nasty!

Those are some rims!

Quick acceleration is not an option.

In this car, you'll need all the luck you can get!

Who needs flat screens when you can have Tupperware and seashells? ’Pimp My Ride’ just got schooled!

I’m Famous!

As you may well know, my fame increases daily. Even the great ‘Duck Sauce’ has replaced ‘Barbra Streisand’ in favour of my name.

Click for audial awesomeness!

I would like to thank my parents, my friends, all my fans, my non-existant agents and the nice man that I speak to on the phone when my internet gives trouble.  Without you, I would be nothing. x

From a non-tennis racquet to kitchen goodies!

Once upon a time, when I was but a wee little creature, I bought a raffle ticket at a tennis tournament.  The prize was for a brand new, shiny, will-make-me-play-like-Steffi-Graf tennis racquet. Upon recieveing my number, I decided that I actually felt luckier with my friend’s number (my 6th sense), as did she with mine.

We swapped.

She won.

This is as close as I have ever come to winning anything, but today it would seem that my luck has changed! In addition, I no longer listen to that pseudo 6th sense since it has proven wrong time and time again!

Thanks to Aficionado I won a R250 Yuppiechef voucher. I spend at least a few hours a week ogling over the kitchen goodies on their site, but now I’m in a quandary. I don’t know what to spend my R250 on!

Like any good shopper, I’m not limiting myself to the R250, but it just makes my options endless!

I’d love to hear what you would buy. I’ll let you know what I eventually decide on.

This could take a while…

Mates Rates

Since I have recently embarked on my own business venture, I am finding an increased amount of ‘would you minds’ from my friends. By nature I want to help my mates, but when do you draw the line, quit the favours and start charging as you would any other client?  I found this and thought that I would share it with y’all!

This is a great guideline for any entrepreneur (assuming you have friends ):

Click the image to see if you should be working for free…

Over and out!  xx

Paying peanuts? Get monkeys!

I read a blog this morning by Marc Palmer that made me furious!  Basically, Marc is a comedian who did his show at The Brass Bell in Kalk Bay (@BrassBell) and was told afterwards that there were not enough people through the door (packed house) and therefore the comedians were not going to be paid. Disgusting! I honestly don’t know how some people, in today’s world, sleep at night.

I am in the advertising field and outsiders are under the impression that it is how it is in the movies: fancy glass offices, pencil skirts and a fabulous salary to boot.  This, my dear friends, is not the case unless you are the CEO or head creative honcho of the likes of King James, Ogilvy or Saachi & Saachi. For the past year I have bounced between one job/internship and the next, and what makes the (hypothetical) hair on the back of my neck stand up is how badly creatives are treated.

I am qualified with a degree and experience (more than just creative experience) under my belt, yet my last employer saw it fit (after my 1 month probation) to extend my R3000 a month salary for another 3 months with no guarantee of a pay rise or permanent employment thereafter. What can you do on R3000?  My domestic worker gets R3000 a month! I am 25, supporting myself,  not living at home and driving a car, which *gasp!* needs fuel to get to work. For all of you that are renting in Cape Town, you know that R3000 will get you a hot pad in Observatory with neighbours that run their drug syndicate from home.  One prospective job offered me R1500 a month. I didn’t even go to the interview.  I simply told them that it wasn’t worth the fuel to get there!  So basically this ‘cheap labour’ is creating a trend of employers taking on ‘interns’ (who must, by the way, have a formal tertiary qualification to even set foot in the door), paying them next to nothing, keeping them for a couple of months and then getting a new rookie who they can pay peanuts.  So the cycle continues…

After a torrid year of being taken advantage of by employers (who I hope Karma will find) I decided that this year, 2011, I am going to do this on my own.  I am starting my own company, and I vow, here and now for all of you to read, that I will NEVER pay an employee less than he/she is worth.

Happens all too often.

I am told on a daily basis that I can’t live in an ideal world, since it doesn’t exist. Be that as it may, I know that when I put my head on that pillow at night that I would have worked and earned an honest days wage without abusing the people that work for me.  I WILL create my own ideal world, I am a creative after all! I cannot emphasize enough the disgust and loathing I have towards those that take advantage of people’s creative skills.  Imagine a world without creatives? Boring? Yes! So why are they taken for granted?

I may swim upstream in my beliefs, but I know that I will encourage loyalty from my employees if I treat them with respect.  I will be successful, and I’m not going to take advantage of or stand on anyone to get there.  Honesty, kindness and humility. Yes, believe it or not there are a number of multimillion-dollar companies that became successful by implementing these qualities.  It’s not easy, and there is more money to be made by being an outright douche and a snake, but I am taking the high road.  When I buy myself a new flashy iPad, there will be no guilt attached to the purchase, as I know that my employees are able to support themselves and are being paid their worth.

Remember ‘A Christmas Carol’? I’m anonymously going to start mailing the DVD to a few employers. I wonder if their greed and arrogance will blind them from seeing the point?