For this reason, we believe that the EFF’s proposed punitive approach has merit. However, we also believe that instead of punishing white-owned agencies for having been appointed to do the work by advertisers, the advertisers should be punished for giving them the work instead. To this end, they should be fined 15% of their annual turnover if they continue to violate the stipulations of the Marketing Advertising Communication Sector Charter.
To find out who these offending advertisers are, you can review the Nielsen AdEx Top 50 SA advertisers report online. This racial exclusion issue has been discussed for more than 20 years, but because the pace of change has been painfully slow, we should continue to voice our concerns in this regard.
Over and above the advertisers being fined, we believe they should also be “named and shamed” for their lack of efforts to transform. Black agencies, with the department of trade, industry & competition , need to create a system that monitors who advertising projects are assigned to. This will make it easy for us to track repeat offenders and engage them so they can take corrective action. We also need to keep believing in black media. Black media needs to be as big as black culture and the same should translate all the way to the bank.