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Jaaaa, boet.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that appears to be true with Mexican fast-food chain Mochachos.

Every TV-watching South African of a certain age remembers Boet & Swaer, most famous for their Castrol adverts.

Ian Roberts played Boet, Norman Anstey was Swaer, and Fats Bookholane starred as Moegai, who often ended up stealing the show.

The first ad was rolled out way back in 1988, and in 2003, Castrol announced they were ending the campaign.

Clearly, there’s still something there that caught the eye of Mochachos, and it also caught the eye of branding expert Andy Rice.

Before we get into that, let’s see a Boet & Swaer advert from back in the day:

Fast forward to 2021, and this from Mochachos:

The intro, the location, many of the shots – pretty striking similarities, right?

Rice spoke with Bruce Whitfield on CapeTalk’s The Money Show:

This one features our heroes sitting on the porch, sweating under the merciless sun and we have exactly the same here with Mochacho’s.

Essentially, everything is designed to echo the Castrol campaign and for that reason alone, I have to say this is not plagiarism but some kind of homage to a much celebrated campaign.

However, Rice does also point out that Mochachos may face some allegations of plagiarism, given the clear resemblances.

I just find the Mochachos effort a bit of a strange ad, really.

I also ventured down the YouTube wormhole to find some other Boet & Swaer ads, and they make for a reminder of how what’s deemed acceptable in terms of advertising has shifted over the past 25 or so years.

Consider these two ads, which would probably result in a social media backlash if they aired today:

That last line would be pulled apart for sure.

[source:capetalk]