Saturday 4 December 2010

'Pappa Wag Vir Jou'


I came across this anti-drunk driving advert yesterday while browsing the
Mail and Guardian pages and was a little amused on seeing this and wondered whether the advertisting had gone all fashionably retro and decided to put on it's 1980s apartheid garb. Didn't brandhouse get the memo??? Race stereotypes of fierce Black and Coloured men does not mean fierce as in stylish or hard used in the lingo of 2010. Go back to the drawing board guys, you've utterly failed at conveying what could have been a good message by basically saying White men don't go to jail because there are big Black men and Coloured gangsters all tatted up n toothless waiting for you.  From the  first Black man saying  "These hands will NEVER let you go in English to the last man saying "Pappa wag vir jou" (Daddy is waiting for you) in Afrikaans, it is evident that this advert is playing on body, language and identity and race stereotypes. On language English translates to master's language, civilized tongue and the switch to Afrikaans act as the oppositional 'other' lingua franca - a bastard, uncivilized tongue spoken by Coloureds, one of the common stereotypes about Afrikaans particularly in the Western Cape with it's history as the 'language of brutality' in tow.
 In addition, on race and sex/homophobic stereotypes this advert is wrong - there's something uncomfortable about a Public Service Announcement saying 'don't go drinking and driving or you'll get raped in jail' as though either all prisoners in jail were the raped or the rapists and those doing the raping were men of colour as suggested by those playing the role of prisoner in this advert as well as that homosexual prisoners are rapists. It also implies that  the image of jail rape can be peddled at the expense of some of those who are forced/choose to be homosexuals in prison as a means of survival.
While most S.A prisons are in and of themselves inhumane places because of the poor conditions, it does not naturally follow that all prison inhabitants are savages who ravage every fresh bum upon it's arrival in the cells. If the fear of being raped in jail  is supposed to act as a deterrent, are we also subliminally being told that rape in jail will not be acted on? That it is a natural consequence of going to jail? There's got to be an extension of that section of the narrative, even if it were just a phrase, because as it stands it suggests that in addition to a jail term, anal rape by big Black and Coloured men is the state-perceived discipline drunk drivers will suffer. And what happens to Blacks, Coloureds and Asians (yea they forgot to throw that stereotype in the mix (curry anyone?)) who are arrested on the same charge? They become the rapists, eh? 
Uh, huh. *SMH*

P.S Apart from the excellent M&G article linked above, also read Africas A Country's
 (link to come later, sorry tech issues, please Google it or ask me 4 link)
brilliant take on it, I just realised they did a li'l crit too - more on race than sexuality.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's kak ad, but unsurprisingly some people don't see it. In the New South Africa race, we are colour blind and don't mind when Annelie Botes says she doesn't like Black people but receives an award named after a black man. In the New South Africa readers of the Mail and Guardian have no problem with these things and liberally say so on news comments.
From apartheid state to colour-blind nation, what a sad country.

ST

Anonymous said...

The last guy made me laugh but I agree about the negative stereotyping.
South may be the rainbow nation but perceptions of race and foreigness leaves alot to be desired. It's like that everywhere in the world though. There is always an other.
Nqo

Anonymous said...

http://www.dontparty.co.za/2010/12/pappa-wag-vir-jou-brandhouse-drive-dry-campaign/

Anonymous said...

they fucken scare me ill never drink and drive ill rather smoke and fly

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