SAB ordered to pull Brutal Fruit TV ad over showing and encouraging glass bottles and bringing and drinking alcohol on a beach

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has ordered South African Breweries (SAB) to remove its "Be in the Moment" TV commercial for Brutal Fruit since it shows not just glass bottles which is prohibited on South African beaches but also depicts people bringing and drinking alcohol on a beach which are also illegal.

SAB aired its Brutal Fruit TV commercial on Warner Bros. Discovery's Discovery (DStv 121) channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service.

The Brutal Fruit TV commercial was filmed by Giant Films with Emma Lundy and Cindy Gabriel as executive producers, with Joe Public as the agency.

According to the ARB, SAB's Brutal Fruit TV commercial depicts a glass bottle of Brutal Fruit on a colourful beach towel, as well as scenes and a setting in which a group of people are drinking Brutal Fruit

In response to a complaint from a DStv subscriber, SAB's Brutal Fruit told the ARB that the Brutal Fruit glass bottle depicted on the beach is closed and was only displayed "with the intention of showcasing the brand, and at no point did any of the people in the commercial consume the product on the beach".

Brutal Fruit said "it continues to encourage responsible disposal of bottles with appropriate guidance labelling to this effect appearing on packaging".

The ARB said it can't rule on the display of a Brutal Fruit glass bottle depicted on a beach, but said SAB and Brutal Fruit's argument "that the bottle is closed and alcohol is not begin consumed in the beach scenes is a little disingenuous".

"A hypothetical reasonable consumer watching the commercial as a whole and not pausing scene-by-scene as the directorate did, will view the commercial in its entirety, depicting friends enjoying Brutal Fruit together in various settings, and will not isolate the beach scenes, will not analyse each frame and conclude that alcohol is not consumed on the beach."

According to the ARB, it is "a stretch for the advertiser to assert that because the bottles are closed it is used to highlight the brand and does not encourage drinking on a beach".

The ARB in its ruling noted that Clause 3.3 of Section II states that advertisements must not contain anything which might lend support to criminal or illegal activities, nor should they appear to condone such activities.

"There is no doubt in the mind of the directorate that watched as a whole, the commercial condones and in fact encourages bringing alcohol to the beach and consuming it on the beach. This is illegal".

The ARB directorate found that SAB's Brutal Fruit TV commercial contravened Clause 3.3 of Section II of the Code and ordered SAB to remove the Brutal Fruit ad in its current format from wherever it appears.

CORONAVIRUS. South Africa's TV commercials production biz loses staggering R1 billion due to Omicron travel bans, Cape Town TV advert summer filming season under threat with thousands of jobs in jeopardy.

by Thinus Ferreira

South Africa's TV ad production industry alone lost close to 200 confirmed and quoted TV commercial projects with a combined value of over R1 billion - projects that were abruptly swept away following the shocking travel bans that were imposed last month on the country after South Africa alerted the world of Covid-19's Omicron variant.

In addition Cape Town's traditional TV advert summer filming season for 2021 during which multiple TV commercials are filmed, is facing a dire threat with the potential loss of hundreds of projects employing thousands of people.

The Commercial Producers Association of South Africa (CPASA) did an industry-wide survey following the shocking travel bans implemented by various countries on South Africa after the country alerted the world to the Omicron variant, and found that the TV commercial production industry suffered a loss of over R1 billion.   

The CPASA survey revealed the devastating cost of the bans on South Africa's film, stills and commercial production sector with 122 confirmed TV advert projects which were cancelled with a collective value of R420 220 000. Another 162 projects under quote were lost with a collective value of R619 640 000.

"Even more concerning is the potential loss of hundreds of additional projects that would normally be produced during Cape Town's summer season which runs from October to April each year," CPASA says.

"The staggering losses already recorded could become the tip of the iceberg if the bans are not reversed soon." Our industry is in a state of shock and despair at recent developments.  We can only hope and pray that the situation improves soon."

The CPASA says that the Omicron variant and the resulting travel bans prohibiting travel to and from South Africa disrupted production in South Africa at the beginning of the country's highly anticipated summer commercial season.

"The CPASA hopes these travel bans are lifted soon and that international production can resume in South Africa in the near future. Production in the domestic industry continues with no additional restrictions and production companies adhering closely to all Covid-19 protocols."

The CPASA has sent a letter to the UK High Commissioner to South Africa on 7 December requesting that the British government "urgently consider reversing the travel bans" it implemented following the identification of the Omicron variant.

"Our industry is in a state of shock and despair at recent developments. We can only hope and pray that the situation improves soon," CPASA says.

Openview's new black-and-white TV commercial with Siya Kolisi and Wayde van Niekerk features a people's movement building a free TV mountain.

eMedia's free-to-air satellite TV service, Openview, has made a black-and-white TV commercial with Springbok captain Siya Kolisi and Olympian athlete Wayde van Niekerk to underscore the growing movement of free-to-air digital television in South Africa.

The "TV Free and Proud" advert that was filmed in Johannesburg and conceptualised and produced by Sugar Ray Leonard & Partners and directed by Tebogo Malope, director at The Star Film Company, has people in various setting staring at TV screens with pay-TV channels until they unplug it and start moving, en masse, with the TV sets outside.

It leads to a movements of people stacking their TV sets in a heap on the Nelson Mandela Bridge in downtown Johannesburg.

More than 150 extras, including e.tv staff, took part in the commercial.

"The team at eMedia really put us through our paces in terms of carving out the positioning for Openview," says Marlin van Noie, Sugary Ray Leonard's chief creative officer.

"We finally got to the 'freedom of entertainment', and it felt right for Openview to be the liberator of free - the brand for the people."

Director Tebogo Malope says "the team at eMedia are creative, and they are also plugged into the streets. They are about the people, and they are about creative work like this. I realised I am in a space with kindred spirits who understand how to make work that resonates with our people."

Openview has just passed 1.5 million activated set-top boxes (STBs) this month and currently carries 20 TV channels and 8 radio stations.

"For the first time in the South African landscape there is world-class television in high-definition (HD) for free," says Khalik Sheriff, the new eMedia Investments' CEO.

"Don't tell anybody I didn't warn you. Even if you don't believe me today, in a few years from now, we will all be watching Openview."

MUST WATCH. The moving, animated Christmas TV commercial about Rang-Tan the orangutan banned from British television for being 'too political'.

Britain's advertising clearing body has banned a supermarket group's Christmas TV commercial and its moving message, with the must-watch environmental ad about Rang-tan the orangutan showing the devastation caused by palm oil producers, that has now gone viral.

The Iceland supermarket chain wanted to broadcast a TV commercial that is an edited version of a Greenpeace-made animated video, highlighting the scourge of palm oil growers destroying rain forest habitats causing orangutans to become a critically endangered species.

Iceland's TV commercial has been banned because, Clearcast that approves TV commercials for TV channels in the United Kingdom says the ad is "too political". Meanwhile the UK's Advertising Standards Authority that has oversight over and the authority to rule over ClearCast's decision is washing its hands over the decision.

Iceland has decided to upload the video to YouTube instead.

The Icelands supermarket group worked with Greenpeace to re-edit its animation short film and to broadcast it as a TV commercial, after it earlier this year decided to remove all palm oil from its own supermarket-branded foods.

Iceland in a statement says "This was a film that Greenpeace made with a voice-over by Emma Thompson. We got permission to use it and take off the Greenpeace logo and use it as the Iceland Christmas ad. We have said repeatedly we are not anti-palm oil, we are anti-deforestation. We think this is a huge story that needs to be told".

A Clearcast spokesperson told The Guardian that "Clearcast and the broadcasters have to date been unable to clear this Iceland ad because we are concerned that it doesn't comply with the political rules of the Broadcast Code of Advertising Practice code".

The latest Greenpeace research found that 25 palm oil groups had cleared more than 130 000 hectares of rainforest in the last 3 years while companies including Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Mondelez, Mars and Kellogg's buy palm oil from companies that Greenpeace deems to be destructive.

From October the episodes of several of your TV shows are finally going to start to become longer again as NBCUniversal cuts down on time for ads in America.

O hallelu, O hallelu, the TV angels did proclaim: From October the episodes of several of your TV shows are finally going to start getting a bit longer again instead of constantly shrinking in duration, after NBCUniversal announced its finally cutting down on the TV commercial clutter to try and keep linear TV viewers from fleeing.

Although NBCUniversal is doing this for the free-to-air and pay-TV channels that it runs and programmes, and for the TV shows it owns and shows on its channels in America, the effect of longer duration episodes and shows with less TV commercials will be the same for South African viewers when those will be shown here.

NBCUniversal announced that from its new fall season in America, meaning the 4th quarter of this year, it will be reducing "ad loads" by 20% during prime time and decrease the overall time given to ads during prime time by 10%.

What it means in ordinary language is that viewers will see less TV commercials during hour long and half hour shows, and more of the actual show. There will be 20% less ads per ad break, and 10% less ads during prime time shows.

Because there will be less ads per hour and less ad time per hour, the actual episode duration of some shows will increase.

This reduction in the number of adverts, as well as the total time per hour or half hour given to TV commercials, will apply to all 50 of NBCUniversal's prime time original shows across NBCUniversal's portfolio that includes channels like E!, NBC, and shows like This is Us seen on M-Net (DStv 101) and Keeping up with the Kardashians seen on E! (DStv 124).

Because episodes of This is Us on NBC will in response to less adds become longer than the 42 minutes due to less commercial time per episode, This is Us on M-Net will be longer as well.

What it means is that M-Net by default will be forced to show less ads during This is Us since less time will be available if the show is still to fit into a hour, in the way that episodes of HBO shows like Game of Thrones, Westworld and Big Little Lies have had longer than broadcast TV runtimes.

The same will now hold true for large number more TV shows like the Kardashians on E!, and for every other TV channel in South Africa that will be showing any of NBCUniversal's programming.

Because of the American change, it will likely mean changes for DStv Media Sales that's responsible for the ad sales and for managing the available inventory and commercial time that's available during episodes of shows and played out across several DStv channels and the M-Net packaged channels on the pay-TV platform.

MSNBC (StarSat 263), the news channel available on On Digital Media and StarTimes Media SA's StarSat for example and owned by NBCUniversal, is programmed and broadcast straight from America. Yet even here viewers in America as well as in South Africa will automatically see less ads than before.

"We know that the live, linear viewing experience needs to change," says Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales and client partnerships for NBCUniversal.

Part of reducing the ads is the addition of several new types of ads that NBCUniversal will be introducing in America to ad buyers soon.

The "scripted commercial launch" for instance will see an in-show moment transitioning into a commercial. For example a character on the drama series Suits could walk into a coffee shop and grab a drink, that would lead into a commercial for that drink.

MultiChoice agrees not to advertise films that it doesn't have available on its DStv BoxOffice service.

MultiChoice has agreed not to broadcast one of its TV commercials on DStv again - an advert touting its DStv BoxOffice service - with films that it doesn't actually have available on its video-on-demand service.

It comes after a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) earlier this year that MultiChoice was showing a DStv BoxOffice commercial that included the names of four films - Hidden Figures, Hacksaw Ridge, La La Land and Moonlight - as well as the number of Oscar nominations and "wins" the films received, and the claim "BoxOffice by DStv has the gold" at the end.

Geoffrey Skelton lodged a consumer complaint against MultiChoice's DStv BoxOffice and said that MultiChoice's TV commercial was designed to mislead the public into believing that these films are currently available to view on DStv BoxOffice, "when in fact none of these films are available to view".

MultiChoice in its defence told the ASA that "the  advertisement promotes the types of films that a subscriber can expect from DStv BoxOffice, and took advantage of the recent Oscar Awards and the films that either were nominated or won awards".

MultiChoice denied that the advertisement was designed or intended to mislead the public, but agreed that its message may be misleading, apologised, and said it won't repeat the advertisement in the same format.

The ASA directorate said that where an advertiser provides an unequivocal undertaking to withdraw or amend its advertising in a manner that addresses the concerns raised, the undertaking may, at the discretion of the ASA, be accepted without considering the merits of the matter.

MultiChoice's "undertaking appears to address the complainant’s concerns and there is therefore no need to consider the merits of the matter at this time".