[imagesource: YouTube / OK Furniture]

Put together a well-constructed advert and you can become a part of the national lexicon.

“It’s not inside, it’s on top” and so forth.

These days, we’re no longer restricted to a few channels on the telly and streaming is all the rage so it’s a little tougher to crack that sort of reach.

However you dress it up, though, OK Furniture’s ‘we save you money’ ad is a fail.

In conversation with Bruce Whitfield on The Money Show, branding expert Andy Rice went to town when awarding the ad “a big fat zero” as part of his ‘Heroes and Zeros’ feature.

Observe:

Money was saved – in the making of this advert.

OK Furniture turned off comments on the YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram videos featuring the ad, but Rice won’t let them get off that easily.

After being “momentarily lost for words” by how awfully the PJ Powers classic ‘Jabulani’ has been butchered, he mustered this:

Move over Vanish stain removal powder! exclaims Rice.

“You’ve been dethroned as the zero of all zeros at the moment by OK Furniture with the most… appalling, most trite and unprofessional and unoriginal piece of advertising I’ve seen for a long time.”

Not to be outdone, Whitfield chimed in with, “I’m sorry, there is nowhere in South Africa where you can go into any retail store and see that many people ready to serve you.”

The same rings true for any restaurant in the V&A Waterfront.

Just remember this, when you see awful ads on television and in print, or hear shockers on the radio.

Our country has an immense amount of marketing talent and know-how. What it lacks are employers willing to pay a fair, living wage to those in the field.

[source:capetalk]