Some twisting the spirit of Mandela Day
|Published
(File photo) Tattoo artist Charles Hearne creates a portrait of Mandela on the leg of customer Sjaan van Tonder in Pretoria. Photo: AP (File photo) Tattoo artist Charles Hearne creates a portrait of Mandela on the leg of customer Sjaan van Tonder in Pretoria. Photo: AP
What are you doing on Mandela Day? Advertising execs have brainstormed the catchiest way to combine the numbers 67 and 94.
And even well-meaning initiatives have tended to emphasise the numbers and not the message:
Children will help Nataniel decorate 1 000 cupcakes in Eersterust; Jacobs Coffee has been arranging 5 000 cups of coffee to look like Mandela’s face; and ELLE magazine encouraged readers to knit blanket squares 67 stitches wide and 67 rows long before posting them to their offices to be made into blankets.
This play on numbers could be argued as a tool to attract participants to the relevant activities. But in some instances companies have abandoned change promotion for self-promotion.
Hairdresser Tanaz Salon sent an SMS bragging about how they were “spreading Madiba warmth” by offering a free cappuccino with every colour and a 10 percent discount if you spent more than R600. Seemingly as an afterthought, they tacked on the end of the message: “Bring a blanket or jacket for us to give to the needy.”
Fruit & Veg City had a “Mandela Day Deal”: Buy a 7kg pocket of potatoes, a pocket of onions and a chicken for only R67. Pick n Pay offered shoppers double points today as part of their “Happy Birthday Madiba”.
The Mandela Day website says the objective is to “inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so build a global movement for good”.
But not everyone gets the point, as these posts on Twitter suggest:
* 5FM DJ Rob Forbes (@RobForbesDJ): Spend your 67 mins tomorrow untagging terrible photos of your friends on Facebook #MandelaDay
* ZANU PF spoof account (@zanu_pf): … to mark this day we will b reclaiming 67hecters of land stolen by white colonists.
* dj-medicine (@dj_medicine): Make love to your woman for 67min 2moro. #Mandela_day
* Alan Mwendwa (@alanmwendwa) Hey boss, can I get a day off on Mandela day?
The Star