Over the years, there have been a lot of violent xenophobic attacks against some of the foreigners that live in South Africa. This is an issue that our country continues to grapple with.

 

When Nando’s briefed us to highlight the variety they have in their menu, we translated variety into diversity. We launched our campaign with a TVC. In the advert, we had a voiceover telling everyone in South Africa to go back to where they came from. All the nationalities disappear in a puff of smoke, until there’s no one else left except for a Khoisan man refusing to go anywhere. The Khoi people are the indigenous people of Southern Africa. The idea was to get everyone to question the ridiculous nature of xenophobia, as well as to celebrate the diversity found both in our country and in the Nando’s menu.

 

Our TVC never aired because the national broadcaster (South African Broadcasting Corporation) refused to flight it. They failed to see the advert’s pro-diversity message and instead cited that it would spark xenophobic attacks. The broadcasters imposed censorship on the ad and that caused a national outcry.  

 

Although the advert could be seen on YouTube, Nando’s refused to be censored. Since most South Africans don’t have Internet access, we opted for a medium that could reach everyone from the suburbs to the most rural of areas. We quickly ran a full-page press ad in all the major national newspapers (including the Sunday Times), which was essentially a frame-by-frame storyboard of our TVC. The conversation in the media and around South Africans’ dinner tables was no longer just about xenophobia, but censorship and freedom of speech.