Diesel+EDUN Promote Denim Collection with Pantsula vs. Puppet Dance-off

Diesel+Edun - Pantsula vs Puppets

After travelling to Africa in 2012 to explore each other’s programs in Uganda and Mail, Diesel founder Renzo Rosso and EDUN founders Ali Hewson and Bono joined forces to promote the apparel trade in Africa under the name Diesel+EDUN. Out of this collaboration comes a denim collection manufactured in Africa from cotton sourced through EDUN’s Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI).

Beyond simply fashion, the campaign showcases young African artists in film, music, photography and literature, whose work is featured at StudioAfrica.Tumblr.com.

To promote the collection, Vice, UK brought in South African director Sean Metelerkamp to create a high energy short film featuring the talents of Real Action, a Johannesberg pantsula dance crew.

The clip “Pantsula vs Puppets” shot in Soweto (embedded below), shows the dancers competing head-to-head against a group of hot-stepping marionettes set to The Very Best & Moroka‘s track ‘Ndekha‘.

South Africa

German Charity MISEREOR Creates Realistic “Afrika Kicker” Foosball Game

MISEREOR - Afrika Kicker

Hamburg-based agency Kolle Rebbe has created an interactive donation box in the form of a foosball table for German charity MISEREOR, with the 2 euro donations going to benefit the children of Rwanda and South Africa.

But Afrika Kicker is not a typical Foosball table, with smooth uncluttered playing surface. Players challenge each other on a bumpy clay surface, and must negotiate obstacles like a tree and well hole, just like in some real African football matches.

Players can broadcast their Afrika Kicker match via a Livestream, or just keep their Facebook friends updated with the score.

[via Pull the Trigger]

Germany

Agency Recruits Doctors With Ad That Can Only Be Heard Through Stethoscope

Africa Health Placements - Stethoscope Ad

Over half of the 1200 doctors who graduate each year in Africa leave the continent for more lucrative opportunities. Africa Health Placements, a social-profit recruitment agency, is helping to fill the critical healthcare gaps left in rural African communities.

To speak directly to these foreign doctors, they collaborated with South African agency Boomtown to create (to the best of my knowledge) the world’s first stethoscope radio ad.

The direct mail piece contains a pressure-activated device that contains a low-frequency MP3 that can only be heard through a doctor’s stethoscope. It’s a brilliantly imagined concept that speaks directly to it’s intended audience through tools of the trade.

[via PSFK]

South Africa

South African Bug Killer Brand Promoted with Massive Billboard Made of Shoes

DOOM - Wall of Shoes

South African bug killer brand Doom and TBWA South Africa sought to illustrate their product’s killing power by comparing it to the most common form of “spur-of-the-moment” bug control, the shoe.

With nearly 100,000 species of bugs found in the country, that’s a lot of shoe smacking. The agency constructed a 22 metre tall billboard featuring 5771 shoes, carefully positioned to create a massive mosaic of a can of Doom. The public was then given the opportunity to win cash prizes by guessing the total number of shoes on the billboard.

This massive outdoor execution is in sharp contrast to the tiny bug dioramas set up in small building cracks earlier this year by DOOM and their agency.

South Africa

Volkswagen Challenges South Africans to Find & Pin VWs on Street View

Volkswagen Street Quest - South Africa

Volkswagen holds 3 of the 10 positions on the top selling cars of all time. The Golf is #3 with 27.5 million, the Beetle at 23.5 million, and the Passat at 15.5 million.

With those numbers in mind, Volkswagen South Africa has launched Street Quest, a challenge in which players search the streets of South Africa using Google Street View and ‘pin’ as many Volkswagens as they can find. The first part of challenge is being played out over 4 weeks, with each week’s top ‘pinner’ winning a trip to Cape Town to compete in the live Grand Final. The first three Quests saw more 250,000 VWs pinned by players. To be counted cars must be clearly identifiable as a Volkswagen, if more than 3 cars are determined to be falsely pinned the player will be disqualified.

The campaign was created by Ogilvy Cap Town.

South Africa

Johannesburg Joy of Jazz Festival Promotion Goes to the Birds

StandardBank Pigeon Jazz

Birdland is a famous jazz club in New York City named after legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie ‘Yardbird’ Parker. When it opened in 1949, just north of West 52nd Street, it featured the who’s who of jazz including Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bud Powell, Stan Getz, Lester Young, Erroll Garner, and many others. The original Birdland closed in 1965 before being reborn on the upper west side in 1986. More recently in the 1990s, Birdland was moved back to midtown Manhattan and remains a destination for jazz musicians and fans alike.

Recently a different kind of jazz/bird relationship was played out in the appropriately named Pigeon Square in Johannesburg. To promote the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival 2012, a set of instruments were set up and covered with seeds and popcorns. Soon, the sweet jazz sounds of the band dubbed the ‘Featherweights’ filled the square much to the confusion and delight of passerby.

I don’t envy the roadies cleaning up after this show.

The stunt was created by TBWAHuntLascaris, Johannesburg and produced by Hey!Fever.

via: Ads of the World

South Africa

Buggy Ad Campaign Uses Building Cracks as Cockroach Dioramas

Doom Fogger - Roachville

Johannesburg, South Africa agency TBWA Hunt Lascaris had been tasked with coming up with an out-of-home campaign illustrating how the DOOM Fogger gets into every nook and cranny to kill bugs.

As an alternative to more traditional outdoor media, the agency took the challenge literally and created advertising spaces out of the cracks and holes in the walls of buildings. They created Roachville; cockroach dioramas showing the insects posed in living room, bedroom and cafe scenes. Large colourful highlights pointed toward the tiny scenes with the headline “Gets to Where They Live”.

via Ads of the World

South Africa

South African Fast-Food Chain Seeds Campaign With Braille Burgers

Wimpy Braille BurgersSouth African burger chain Wimpy wanted to create awareness and word-of-mouth around the introduction of a new braille version of their menu.

Wimpy’s chefs created special ‘Braille Burgers’ by carefully placing sesame seeds one-at-a-time on the uncooked buns creating a message describing the burger such as, “100 per cent pure beef burger made for you.”

15 of the special burgers were created and then delivered to blind people at Blind SA, Braille Services, and Louis Braille House; three of South Africa’s leading institutions for visually-challenged people. The word then spread through their braille newsletters, publications and newsreaders.

The campaign was created by Johannesburg ad agency Metropolitan Republic.